


The Forgotten Paladin || vld

by LogicalChaos



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Abuse, Child Abuse, F/F, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, OC, OCs - Freeform, Parent Death, Self-Harm
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-10
Updated: 2020-12-08
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:40:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 35,970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23580982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LogicalChaos/pseuds/LogicalChaos
Summary: She was abused. A runaway thought of as dead. Her journey brings her to many worlds, past many faces. She ends up joining the fight against Zarkon. Meeting old faces that have changed, but don't remember her. She is the forgotten one, the Forgotten Paladin.
Kudos: 1





	1. The Move

I walk out of the store carrying two baskets of my favorite food, peanut butter chocolate protein bars. The treats suddenly fall out of my control, and I bump into the glass window of a car. To be more specific, my father’s classic car. 

“Isla Runa Patterson, what are you doing out here? You are to be at the Garrison at all times.”

I stare up at his towering figure. “Yes father, but I was given special permission to leave the Garrison for a short while.”

“I suppose that is fine then, but what is all this food for?” He asks, gesturing to my purple bike, filled to the brim with snacks.

“It’s for the Garrison, they want me to bring them for something. I have no idea what for though,” I say through clenched teeth.

He rolls his eyes at my antics and brushes past me, entering the store. I jump onto my bike and hover to the Arizona desert. I look around at the same scenery I’ve known for years but never gotten used to. 

I rip open the letter from the marine corps. I made it! I made it! My door creaks open, and my father rushes inside. “Isla, I just received a letter from the Galaxy Garrison, they accepted you!"

“Father, I never applied for the Garrison, but I did apply for the Canadian Atlantic Division Marine Corps, and made it in.” I hold up the letter for him to see.

“I know that's what you wanted, but at fifteen, I can still tell you what to do and this is it. I have already accepted a job at the Garrison as a communications instructor for junior cadets, which you will be.”

I can feel the tears well up in my eyes, as my dreams are crushed by the one who is supposed to help me accomplish them. My father stares through me and scoffs, “We’re leaving for Arizona tomorrow, you better get ready.” 

He leaves my room, and I rush up to the door, slamming it closed with all of my strength. I finally let the pent up anger and distress explode, screaming into the hands covering my mouth. Tears spring out of my eyes, dripping to the floor. I take out my four colour-coded suitcases and begin to pack up my room. When I finish, I escape my small house and into the main part of St. Johns, Newfoundland. I head towards my favorite shop, The Shell and Seagoods Import, I walk in, the automatic doors sliding open for me. 

My best friend Anna runs up to me, “Isla, I missed you so much!” Her younger brother, Jacob, is close behind her. “I suppose that's gonna be normal now," I mumble. 

“Did you get into the Canadan Atlantic Division Marine Corps?” Jacob yells excitedly. “Yes, but I was also accepted into the Galaxy Garrison.”

Jacob’s mouth drops, “That’s amazing! You are the best communications student, after all those years in the lighthouse, but which did you-"

"I thought you only wanted to join the Marine Corps, not the Garrison,” Anna interrupts. 

I look up to them, “I don’t want to move to Arizona for the Garrison, but…” 

Anna begins to cry out, “But, but I’ll miss you, will I see you again?!” She wraps her arms around me, trembling. I smile and pat her back, hoping to comfort her. Jacob also hugs both of us, trying to seem strong by masking his grief. 

“Well, it’s almost time for me to get back home, you know my father," I say as I pry them off of me. 

“Wait!”, Anna screams, running to the back of the shop. Customers stare at us while Jacob and I deadpan. When Anna finally makes it back to us, I see her holding something behind her back. “Close your eyes Isla.” I do as she commands; an upset Anna is quite a scary sight. She places two items in my hand. One feels very flat, smooth, and cold, while the other item seems to be a ring, with a large centerpiece. “Open now!” I gasp as I see a beautiful picture of my mother, Anna, Jacob, and I that my father had taken before my mother passed. I look at the other item, a silver ring with a center made of a large teardrop-shaped blue goldstone surrounded by multiple small, circular larimar stones. 

“Wow, Anna where is it from? It looks like a galaxy surrounded by the ocean, my two favorite things...”

“Well, it was for your eighteenth birthday, but this is a special occasion.” I wrap my arms around Anna again, almost crying. “I also got a hug out of it so that's a bonus.” I punch her arm. She speaks again. “We’re going to miss you so much Isla, right Jacob?” 

“Of course we’ll miss her, I’m going to get mom and dad to say goodbye too.” while he runs off to do that, Anna and I speak about our plans for the future, although she cries for the majority of that time. Anna and Jacob’s parents come over to me, telling me how proud they are and how much they’ll miss me, surrounding me with more hugs. 

When I finally leave the shop, I run to the caverns on the coast. I crawled inside a large cave, jumping down to the bottom. I hop from one ledge to another until I reach a shiny silver-and-black ship. Her eyes light up yellow when I get to her, “Good evening Silver, I’m sorry I haven’t been able to see you until now.”

It’s fine young friend, you are here now, but what is troubling you?

“I can’t hide anything from you, can I? Well, my father is making us move and I have no idea how to bring you with me to the U.S. Desert Division.”

Do you remember that device I helped you to build?

“You did most of the work, Silver, but I think I know what you’re thinking. We can camouflage you and create a portal to the new house.”

I texted my father, ‘What’s the full address of our new house so Anna can send me letters?’ He replies almost instantly, ‘It’s 1452, Corona Ave and Savona Street, U.S. Desert Division’ 

“Okay, Silver, I got the address.” She opens her large mouth and I crawl inside. I seat myself in the black-and-white seat and type in the address, turning on invisible mode. Silver takes off into the sky, with not a soul aware. We open a blue portal in the sky to my new home; that would no doubt make news globally. We fly into the desert, dodging pillars of stone in our way until we reach the address my father had given me. It’s okay, I suppose. We go to some caves near the house, finding one that is the perfect size to hold Silver. We land and I walk out of her mouth, carrying a material replicator that Silver helped me to build. I set it up near the entrance of the cave, making sure that there is a switch accessible on either side of the entrance. “I suppose this is a farewell until tomorrow,” I say as I pat Silver’s right hind leg. 

Alright, my friend, I will create another small portal to your house and we will see each other tomorrow. I switch on the material replicator, causing it to make a rock wall that blocks the entrance and Silver from the world’s view. A human-sized, dark blue portal opens in front of me and I walk through it into my room.

I finish packing up my four suitcases for the plane and begin to put everything else inside boxes for movers to take in the morning. I’m amazed my father hasn’t gotten drunk yet today, maybe he’ll change with this new job. I’m kidding myself; the stress will practically force him to do it again. I’ll be at the Garrison and not with him, at least. I should probably go to sleep, I have no idea when he’ll wake me up. I change into a purple pajama top and silver shorts and crawl into my bed.

“Wake up you lazy brute, we are gonna be late!” My father hollers at me from downstairs. Ugh, what time is it? 4:30, he just had to put us on an early plane. I better get ready or risk it all. I put on a lavender short sleeved shirt, black skinny jeans, black combat boots, and a black cropped jacket with a detachable hood and a lavender stripe on the arms. I tie my hair up in a braided ponytail. I grab my suitcases and boxes, bringing them downstairs to the entrance. I take several trips. I help load the moving van and the taxi, and we hit the road at 5:23

We reach the airport at 5:46, go through security and wait for the plane to be ready. I plug in my earbuds, trying to avoid my father’s glances and enjoy my last minutes in Newfoundland. “Rows twelve through twenty on plane seventy-one to Cheyenne, Wyoming, U.S. Mountain District, please board,” a stewardess calls out over the intercom to the waiting groups of people. My father motions for me to join him in the line and we get our papers out, ready to show her. We walk up to the desk and my father unsuccessfully tries to flirt with her.

“Hey there, my daughter made it into the Galaxy Garrison.”

She turns to me. “Good job, er, I’ll be watching the news for your name, sweetie.” I inwardly groan. Ugh, disgusting, she called me sweetie. I try my best to smile at her and walk into the terminal after she hands me back my papers. 

I walk to my seat, row fifteen, seat B. There is a tall old lady with long, gray hair and two green marks under her eyes sitting right next to the window. Great, just perfect, right in between a weird old lady and my abusive father. Oh well, that’s my life. I take my seat, putting my purple bag under the seat in front of me. When everyone in the plane is seated, a stewardess and steward stand in the middle aisle demonstrating the safety precautions in both English and Quebecois French. I understand both. Guess those French lessons sort of paid off...

I look down at my hands in my lap, fiddling with the ring Anna gave me that was on my pointer finger. I get bored of that so I move the fiddling to the antique, black velvet choker with a brass pendant holding an amethyst around my neck. It was passed down from my mother’s family, her great grandmother’s birthstone is an amethyst. 

“This is your pilot speaking, it is now 6:31 AM Newfoundland time. Today our altitude will be about 9034 kilometers. We will be landing in about four hours at around 7:01 AM mountain daylight time in Cheyenne, Wyoming.” The click signalling he is done speaking sounds and I pop a couple pieces of mint gum into my mouth, preparing for the altitude change. 

The lady next to me still hasn’t showed any signs of noticing I'm there. She could be blind, but nowadays there are so many ways to be healed from all ailments, so I don’t know why she would still be blind. “Child, I know you’re wondering why I have not taken the eye surgery.” How can she know this? “There is much evil in this technology, I wish that you do not fall into the trap.” I look towards my father, who is visibly angered. I wonder what she means by all this, and what she could know. Maybe she’s one of those old people who are against new technology. I thought they were all gone though. 

“Don’t put those stupid ideas in my daughter’s head, we are on our way to the Galaxy Garrison.” The old lady sighs, turning to face the plane window. The light for the seatbelt clicks off and I quickly undo the restraint. I take out my lavender backpack and open it, taking out a pair of black earbuds and a phone out of their case. I turn on the device, plug in my earbuds and play a list of some of my favorite songs. The first one to play is Broken by Lund. I hum along and close my eyes. 

“Isla Runa Patterson, get up now. We have to go for the next security check, now!”. My father almost breaks my right eardrum. 

“Yes father, I’m up." I jump to my feet, gathering our bags and rushing out the terminal and towards the security area. 

“Place your bags on this examining table please." my father and I put our bags on it. The officer goes through them, deciding that there isn’t anything to be concerned about. He gestures for us to continue on. My father drags me to a food court and buys us some breakfast at a fast food place. He hands over a breakfast wrap to me and digs into his own.

“Isla, it’s time for us to go, or we’ll be late for the second time today," father complains angrily. I nod and follow him to the next terminal.

“This is your pilot speaking,” a young female voice floods through the aircraft. “It is currently 9:47 AM mountain daylight time. Our altitude will reach 6745 miles, we will be arriving At Phoenix, Arizona, U.S. Desert District around 11:57 AM mountain standard time.” I look out the window on my left side, surveying the cloud filled sky. At some points I can see the ground far below. I opened my backpack to get my music, but spot a folded piece of paper that hadn’t been there before. I pull it and my music out of my bag, stuffing it back under the seat. I play Savages by Marina and open up the paper, seeing a name and phone number, ‘Gabra Zilcarn: 324 877 4854’. Is this that old lady from the other plane? I place it back in my bag before my father sees it, making a mental note to call her later. I close my eyes and let my mind go blank as I listen to Marina’s soothing voice. 

My right earbud is violently ripped from my ear, jerking me awake and away from the blissful peace of music. “Isla, you need to study for the Garrison.” He shoves a glass, book-shaped object onto my lap. I look up at him, highly confused. He sighs. “This what the textbooks at the Garrison are like.” 

I give him the answer he desires. “Thank you father, I will do it right now.” I put my earbud back inside my ear, clicking open the textbook and starting to read it.

He pulls it out again, “Music will only distract you, now turn it off.” I sigh, doing as commanded. The plane begins its slow descent to the Arizona desert. I stow away the textbook and pop some gum in my mouth. 

We receive our luggage and are given a hover vehicle to use during our stay with the Garrison. My father drives us to the house I had been to only hours before. He pulls into the gray driveway, we drag our bags into the house. We stare, surprised, at the items from our old house that somehow already arrived and had been set up. I walk down a hallway, looking into each room until I find one with my stuff in it. “Don’t forget to pack everything because we are going to the Garrison tomorrow!”

“Yes father," I yell back at him. How am I going to see Silver during all this? Thankfully I’m on the ground level floor. I hurriedly prepare my items for the next day. When I finish I walk over to a window, pop out the screen and jump out of it, nearly missing a huge cactus. Just how did I not see that before I jumped? I land on my feet like a cat, and open an unlocked door in the garage. I bring out my purple bike and ride it to the cave I put Silver in. 

I find the material replicator and switch it off, going inside and turning it back on. I’m so glad that you came to see me today my friend, I have heard your worries and wish to speak about them with you.

“Wow, our connection is that strong, amazing.” 

Well, you are my paladin young one.

“Paladin? What’s that, Silver?”

It’s essentially what we are right now, a paladin is one I grow a bond with and allow to pilot me.

“Oh, I think I understand now, thanks Silver.” I pause. “What are we gonna do, I won’t be able to see you every day. What if someone finds you?” Tears threaten to fall as I contemplate every bad possibility. 

It’s okay, I believe our bond will allow us to communicate from a far distance. 

I think about that for a moment. “I guess we can try that and see if it works. I should probably go home, I fear that father bought some more bottles today.”

I hear Silver growl a bit when I mention the drink. I cannot wait until you get away from that man, Isla, hopefully we will see each other soon. 

“I hope so too, Silver. Hopefully no one finds you, either; I don’t know what they’d do.” I exit the cave, turning the material replicator off and on again. I hop onto the bike and race home. I quietly replace the vehicle and climb into my room through the open window. I looked down at my watch, 9:43. I should probably get my rest, it’ll be a long day tomorrow. I change into a pale lavender lace nightgown. I crawl into my bare bed and pull a thin blanket over myself. 

“Issa! Get vere nou!” My father slurs and I jump up from the bed, running out of my room as fast as humanly possible. I find the living room, looking at my father slumped on a couch. 

“Father?” I receive no response, “you called me?”

“Oh, si (yes)", he smirks at me. I gulp, anticipating what could come to me. He stands up, saying nothing, but staring at me with a strange and sadly familiar look in his eyes. He takes off his boot from his left foot, chucking it at me with a strong, drunken force. It hits me in the face, hitting both my nose and inner right eye. I hiss, sinking to the ground and clutching my face, wishing the burning sensation away. He laughs, choking on his own saliva, and walks over towards me, mumbling. Is this what he wants? For me to scream? I can do that. “You’re too much like her, I must stomp that out before you become her.” 

What the heck is that supposed to mean? I can’t, and won’t, be like my mother. He lifts up his right leg, bringing it down to crush my right shoulder. I scream, the pain ripping through me. It seems to sober him up slightly. His eyes seem to register the damage and he turns around, stumbling to his room. 

I try to make my way back to my room, the pain searing through my shoulder and face. I somehow make it back, and take out a first aid kit, applying some medications to affected areas. This’ll be a pain to hide for my first time meeting the Garrison. I cover myself up again with the blanket and drift into a fitful slumber.


	2. The Galaxy Garrison

“Isla, we’re gonna be late again, I don’t wanna be late on the first day.” I roll out of bed onto the hard ground. Groaning when my shoulder hits the floor. I walk into my onsweet bathroom, striping off my clothing. My shoulder and face both have massive purple bruises. Well, this is just great. I take a quick shower to cool down my burning injuries. When I’m done I lightly rub concealer onto the bruises, hoping not to hurt myself more. I put on a setting spray so I won’t rub it off. I dress myself in a short sleeve lavender shirt, black skinny jeans, gray socks, black combat boots, and my black cropped jacket with lavender stripes on the sleeves. I put on my choker and ring, grab my belongings and race to the driveway. 

I place the items in the vehicle and go to look for food, finding nothing. I come back outside and sit in the passenger seat. When my father finally makes it into the driver’s seat it’s already 7:41am. “How long of a drive is it father?”

“With the speed of this thing, probably an hour at most, we have to be there by nine so we have plenty of time.” 

“Oh…”, I stare out into the desert surrounding us. It looks as if it’s closing in on us. It’s nice and warm compared to home, but I don’t like the scenery, there’s almost no plants. 

‘I know how you feel, the cave seems to close in on me too.’

Silver?

‘Yes?’

You can hear my thoughts?!

“Uh, yes, I thought you knew that?’

I didn’t, but I’m gonna try to sleep.

‘Ok, we’ll talk later then, have a good rest.’ I place my head against the window and close my eyes. 

I wake up, looking to the sky seeing several aircrafts flying in perfect formation. On the ground below them there’s a large gray base with several red flags waving at its entrance. I yawn and pinch my check, trying to wake up. “Wow, this place is huge”, my eyes light up.

“See, I knew you’d like it.”

“Yeah, sure, I definitely like it”, I sarcastically reply. My father somehow missed my tone of voice and pulled up to a checkpoint. 

“What is your business here?”, a blonde guard rudely demands. 

“I am Alejandro Patterson, and this is my daughter Isla Patterson.” He takes some paper out of the glove compartment and hands them to the man. 

“Oh, you’re the new communications instructor and his daughter.” He hands the papers back and lets us pass through. We find a space to park and walk towards the door of the Garrison. Well, here goes nothing… My father opens the door. 

“Welcome Mr. Patterson, Miss Paterson, I am Commander Iverson.” This guy is quite tall, or am I just short? I crane my neck to see the man in a gray coat with three gold stripes on his shoulders and a red crescent. Behind him is a girl who looks like she is about two years older than me. She had dark skin and bleached blonde hair in a high bun on her head. She coughed a bit looking innocently at Commander Iverson. “Oh yes, this is Cassandra Morgans, she is going to show you around the Garrison’s premises today. She waves excitedly at me with a huge grin on her face. Oh no, please don’t tell me she’s that type of girl… I gulp as I politely wave back. 

“Aww, she’s shy that is like so cute!” I wince as she drags me away, father and Iverson laughing at my situation. She shows me the classrooms, research rooms, simulators, cafeteria, and finally the doors. “This one is yours”, she points to dorm 231. “Your with, hmm, I think Melissa Fernafin and Orath Sernti.” 

“Oh, well thank you for showing me around, I guess I should get my items now.” 

“No need, it’s already there”, she says while snapping, “I’ll see ya around kid!” She takes off, I tilt my head in confusion and lean against the door to my dorm. I wonder how I can get inside. It opened and I fell backwards screaming quietly, I landed on a girl.

“Ohmigoodness, are you are you okay Orath.” A high pitched voice says. I look up to see a tanned girl of medium height with stunning amber eyes and dyed bright pink hair staring down at me. “Oh, who’re you?”, she offers me a hand. She pulls me off of who I’m guessing is Orath. 

“I’m so sorry Orath, I’m Isla, your new roommate.” I helped her to her feet, “are you okay, I’m so sorry for falling on you.”

“Uhm, how do you know my name?”

“Melissa just said it.”

“But how do you know her name?”

“Oh, Cassandra told me, she was showing me around.”

“Oh, the annoying one, I’m sorry you had to go through that”, Melissa says. 

“So you’re the one with all the stuff?, Orath gestured to the main part of the room. 

“Um, I guess so, sorry.”

“You say that a lot”, Melissa notes. Wow, I’ve never seen someone like Orath before. She has natural flaming orange hair, desert sand eyes, and light brown skin. “Now follow me, you’re room is over here.” Melissa helps me to unpack and organize while Orath takes a shower in her room. When we finish setting up my room Orath met us in the main section of the dorm. 

“So tell us about yourself”, Orath says.

“Well I’m sixteen, I’m from Newfoundland-”

“So that’s why you’re hard to understand sometimes”, Melissa interrupts.

“Anyways, my father is the new communications instructor, and yeah, that’s really it, what about you guys?”

Melissa answered first, “well I’m seventeen, from Georgia in the U.S. Tropic District, studying to become a fighter pilot, my favorite colour is pink, and I love Japanese food.” She nudged Orath, who hummed in response.

“I’m sixteen, from Egypt, want to become a mechanic, and uh yeah. You’re not homophobic, are you?”

“Uh, no I’m not, why?” Orath blushes a tiny bit.

“We’re dating!”, Melissa almost yells.

“Shh, Melissa, we don’t want anyone else to find out, the others will make fun of us”, Orath whispers sternly. 

“It’s fine”, Melissa hugs Orath.

“I thought our society was accepting of lgbtq+?”

“Well not as much as they should be”, Orath mumbles blushing even more. 

“Oh, they are in Canada I guess.”

“Well, we should start heading to the cafeteria, it’s 12:06pm, do you want to sit with us? Normally it’s just us two, so you wouldn’t have to meet anyone new.”

“Melissa, she should change into her uniform first.”

“Oh yeah, I’ll go do that now, thanks.”

Orath pov

I drag Melissa into my room. “I get the feeling she’s hiding something.”

“Well, we just met her, you can’t expect her to immediately open up.

“I guess so, I do feel that she’s trustworthy, but we’ll see.”

“Uh guys, where are you?”, we both rush out of my room. We see Isla in the orange uniform with a gold stripe on the shoulders. Melissa grabs both of our hands and pulls us to the cafeteria. Well, she is always hungry, what can I expect?

We line up behind several other students, but we quickly reach the front “Do you want chicken or beans?”, a pale boy with black hair asks me annoyed. I think I remember him getting in trouble, this must be the punishment.

“Um, chicken please.”

“Greek or caesar salad?”

“Greek.”

What drink?”

“Orange juice”, he places a tray on the counter and asks Melissa what she wants. Once Isla finishes getting her food, we sit down at a table towards the back of the cafeteria. We eat in silence until the dreaded Cassandra shows up with her annoying personality. 

“Isla, what are you doing with them? Come sit with me and my friends.” The table ahead of us starts yelling and waving. Me and Melissa glance at Isla, wondering if she’d leave us. “Do you really have to think about this, the answer is obvious.”

“You’re right Cassandra, the answer is obvious.” Cassandra smirks, anticipating a new member to her cult of ‘cool people’. “Yep, please leave, your disturbing the peace”, Cassandra groans in rage. 

“Ugh, you just made a terrible choice and an enemy.” She storms off back to where she came from.

“Ahh, thanks for staying with us”, Melissa hugs Isla while I rub my ears. Why does Melissa always have to be so loud? After lunch we go back to our dorms, me and Melissa work on extra classwork. I have no idea what Isla’s doing, but she’s in her room. 

Isla pov

After we get back to the dorm from supper, we say our goodnights, I take a relaxing hot shower. I clean off all the makeup, my bruises are still very purple and turning yellow at the edges. Well, I guess that’s good. Hmm, I wonder if Silver can hear me.

‘Yes, I can, how was your first day?’

Yeah, I think I may have made a couple friends, hopefully they stay.

‘I really hope so, you could use some friends.’

My phone goes off. Wait a second Silver. 

‘Sure.’

“Hello father, do you need anything?”

“Si, can you meet me at my room?”

“Yes what number is it?”

“It’s dorm 13.”

“I will be right there father.” 

‘He better not hurt you again or I swear.’

I put on my casual clothes and put the hood over my face to hide the bruise. After walking down the hall for about ten minutes I find dorm 13. I knock on the door, it quickly opening, my father drags me inside slamming the door. The scent of beer wafting out of his mouth, making me want to puke. Oh no he’s drunk again. “You good for nothing brat, you should have been doing something useful today instead of running around with those idiots.”

“Th-there was nothing for me to d-do father.”

“Nonsense there’s always something you can do.” He swings his left arm into my side. I gasp, not expecting the blow. He swings again, narrowly missing my chin. “Ugh.” I dodge another swing, which makes him really upset. Smiling intently, he runs me over, stomping all over me. Somehow he is still sober enough to hear some people outside of the room. 

“Did you hear that?”

“Yeah, let’s check if everything is okay in there.” Someone knocks on the door, my father picking me up and stuffing me in the closet. 

“I’m coming”, I hear the sound of the door opening. “Is there anything I can help you with?”

“No, we just heard a loud thud from here and were wondering if you were okay.”

“Oh, thank you, I’m fine, just tripped over some boxes, moving problems y'know.”

All three of them laugh, the door closes and my father opens the closet, me falling out onto the floor. “You get out of here now and do not let anyone know what happened”, he says severely. I nod and get out of there as quickly as I can. Thankfully when I got back to my dorm neither Melissa nor Orath come out.

I change into a lavender nightgown with a star pattern and a high neck. I’m exhausted, better go to sleep, tomorrow’s my first day of classes. I crawl into the bed, the hard mattress under me barely moving under my weight. I drift into a nightmare, which plagued me the entire night.

“Isla, we have to go for breakfast!”, Melissa pounds on my door. 

“I’m coming, I’m coming”, I change into the orange, white and gray uniform, the belt hurting my injured body significantly. Almost forgetting to cover the bruises with concealer, I run out of the dorm chasing after Orath and Melissa who had already left without me. 

Looking around the cafeteria, I see them sitting at the same table we had for the past two meals. I line up behind a girl with black hair and tan skin, it quickly becoming my turn to receive food. “What would you like?”, a bored looking girl with ginger hair and pale skin asks. I look down at the food.

“Can I have toast, hash browns, and orange juice please?”

“Sure”, she hands the tray over to me. I take it to the table where my friends are. Friends, that sounds nice. 

‘It sure does, my girl is finally growing up.’ I laugh at her remark, causing some cadets to point and laugh at me talking to ‘myself’. I sit down next to Orath and begin to eat. 

A tall woman with short platinum blonde hair in a gray uniform similar to Commander Iverson’s stands up on a raised platform. “Cadets, you have a new new communications instructor, Mr. Patterson, would you please stand up.” Father stands up and waves to the crowd. “He will be taking over Mr. Kalanies position and will be using the same classroom he did.” she steps down from the platform and the chatter starts up again.   
“So that’s your father Isla?”, Melissa asks. I nod, still chewing my hash browns. 

“How do our classes work?”

“Did you bring the binder you got yesterday?”

“Um no, was I supposed to?”

“Yes, you better go get it now, classes start soon.” I dump out my tray and rush back to the dorm. 

‘You always were a forgetful one Isla.’

Don’t rub it in Silver. I search through my room, looking through the items I received from the Garrison the day before. Finally getting a hold of the binder, I walk to the door, tripping and falling flat on my face. Pain rushes through my abdomen, I force myself up from the ground. I walk out of the dorm, running back to the cafeteria. No one’s here?! Oh no, this is bad, my father is going to be so upset. 

‘Calm yourself paladin, it will be okay, what class do you have first?’

I have a class in the flight simulator with Commander Iverson.

‘The girl showed you that place, correct?

Yeah, I think so…

‘So try and remember where it is.’

Thanks Silver, I don’t know where I’d be without you.

“You would probably be dead my friend.

That is very likely. I go down the hallway on the left from the doors of the cafeteria. I pass many classrooms full of people staring at me concerned for me. I guess being late must be a serious offense. I finally reach the flight simulator room, I knock on the door, a commander with brown hair and glasses opening it for me. “Um, how can I help you cadet?”

This isn’t Commander Iverson’s flight simulator is it?”, I sigh. I am going to be so late. 

“It’s not, but thankfully for you, it’s right behind you.” The cadets behind him are holding their mouths, trying not to laugh at me.

“Thank you sir”, he closes the door and I knock on the one behind me. 

“You are late cadet.” I look up at him and salute. I hope this is the proper time for that.

“I’m sorry sir, I got lost, I’m new.”

“This is understandable, but not acceptable, I will pardon you this time, but I will assign a student to take you to all of your classes today. Can I see your schedule?” I nod and hand it over to him, he goes around to all of the other cadets who had to pause their simulator. He brings a brown haired cadet over to me, “this is Lance McClain, you have the same schedule, he’ll bring you to your classes today, sorry for the inconvenience.”

“It’s fine sir, we’ll have a great time, right uh?”

“Isla, Isla Patterson.”

“Pretty girl, pretty name, what can I expect.”

“I think he was talking to the girl, not you McClain”, a boy with blonde hair yells. Lance looks at his feet. 

“Enough cadets, let's start that simulator again.” Lance and six other cadets line up at a long desk with a screen in front of it. They put on helmets and the training starts. About thirty seconds later a boy crashes, he yelps and spins around holding his head. The next person to crash was a brunette girl with long hair, she just mumbled to herself and joined the rest of us. After a minute, a boy crashes and stomps away from the desk, slamming his helmet on it. Soon after another guy crashes and swears, Commander Iverson had a junior officer who was in the room take him to a discipline office. I hear a scream and turned around to see a girl walk away from the simulator. Then Lance crashes he steps away groaning in frustration. The last person in the simulator lands perfectly and takes off his helmet, smirking at the ones who failed. “That was terrible cadets, not all of you are going to become pilots, but in case of an emergency you must know how to fly.” “okay, Jenkins, Hernerd, Zenox, Patterson, Albert, Kerbera, and Garrett lineup. I will explain this to you Patterson, this is part of a test to see who we should put in which division, in February we will place you in your group.”

“Okay”, I go to the end of the line, beside a boy with dark skin and black hair. We put on our helmets and take the controls. The boy beside me puffs out his cheeks and crashes thirty-six seconds in, he clasps his hands over his mouth and runs away. Another crashes, then another, until there were only three of us left. Thank you Silver for all the practice.

‘You’re welcome.’

“Agh!”, I crash. Silver, really?

‘Well you were talking to me, sorta.’

Maybe while I’m in class don’t bother me.

‘Good idea.’

After class, Lance takes my arm and links it with his. I turn my head to look at him, “what are you doing?”

“Well I have to bring you to your next class, don’t want you to get lost again.”

“Don’t get condescending McClain.”

Lance pov

Condescending? What is that supposed to mean? “Okay.” My next lesson is with Mr. Patterson, he’s doing communications in the old guys class. “So is your father a commander or officer or something like that.

She stiffens up at my question. Oh no, what did I do wrong? “Uhm, being honest I have no idea, you’ll have to ask him.” Who wouldn’t know something like that. Huh, this girl is weird. We reach the classroom, it’s door is thankfully still open. I start to enter the room and she pulls her arm out of mine. What’s up with her? I sit down next to the window at the front. I can’t miss any of this, it could be the difference between staying and leaving the Garrison. The girl, Isla I think sits down at the desk next to me. 

“So I did make a good impression after all?” Did I say that out loud?

“Uhm, I don’t know but this is the only desk left at the front.” Oh…


	3. Talents?

For the next few weeks Isla got used to the Galaxy Garrison’s schedule. She spent her time trying to stay away from everyone apart from Orath and Melissa. She knew that anyone more would just cause drama in her life. Almost every night she was called to her father’s dorm, the injuries getting harder to hide every time. Her only solace was the music she played every night, trying to relearn how to feel motions. Her father’s anger had taught her to distance herself from one of the only things that makes someone human. Her quest for feeling lead her to drawing out a blade most nights. The warm weather than became a problem . she loves it but long sleeves made people question her. She started to complain that she was always cold to cover it up.

Melissa pov

I hear singing coming from Isla’s room. No way? She sings in the shower? That’s cute. I go into my girlfriend’s room, telling her the news. Orath rolls her eyes and we wait for Isla to finish her shower. When she is finally finished, the three of us head to breakfast. 

We get our food and sit down. The commander going behind the podium as usual. “Cadets, today is a free day, but you are not permitted to leave.” All the cadets start whispering and looking at each other in confusion. “You will be called in for an assessment of skills unrelated to your current schooling. We have been needing some showcase for the public that you can do more than just what we teach you. It’s basically just to boost morale of our sponsors that you are fully rounded as individuals.” I wonder what talents I have. I guess I can play soccer and I’m good at swimming… we finish our eggs, toast, and hot drinks not saying a word, we then head back to the dorm.

Isla pov

“All junior cadets please report to Mr. Patterson’s room for talent assessment in five minutes.” It just had to be my father’s room, huh? Great, he says I can’t do anything useful. I don’t want to do anything in front of anyone, they’ll probably make fun of me… The intercom clicks off leaving me fearing what I may have to do. Me and Orath both leave Melissa behind, who was wishing us good luck. We make our way to my father’s classroom, opening the door and seating ourselves next to each other. 

A redheaded woman in the commander uniform stands up at the front of the class behind my father’s desk. “We will be passing out slips of paper with a list of potential skills you may have on it. You will fill out your talents honestly, we will find out if you are lying.” My father glances up at my from his seat with an evil look in his eyes. A piece of paper is set in front of me. I pick it up and read it. Academics- specify, athletics- specify, arts- specify, music- specify. I write down what I believe I’m good at, academics- history/writing, arts- drawing/painting, and music- singing/ukulele/flute. I suppose I am okay at those things. After everyone is finished the task me and we are dismissed, me and Orath go back to an empty dorm. I guess the senior cadets had to go already. When she returned the three of us binge watched some old anime and “studied” for an upcoming test. A couple hours after lunch the intercom turned on again. 

“All those who put down sny musical talents please return to Mr. Patterson’s room.” I turn to the two girls beside me.

“Did either of yo-”

“Nope”, they both interrupted me at the same time. No wonder they are dating, they think the same things at the same time. 

I giggle a bit, “ok, I’ll be on my way then.” I enter my father’s classroom already full of cadets. I take a seat next to a window and some blonde girl. 

“Ok, we will take each of you to a separate room to test your skills, we will tell you what you will be doing by the end of the day. Fist Sara Blanders, please follow me.” The girl beside me stand up and excitedly runs behind the lady at the front. 

After about eight people go to the other room, it's my turn. I follow the commander and am seated in front of her. “Ok Isla, you said that your talents are vocals, ukulele, and flute, correct?” I nod, “well it’s time to put you to the test.” She hands me a ukulele, “can you play Count on Me by Bruno Mars?” I do as she says, humming along as I play. Next she tells me to play some sheet music I’ve never seen before on a flute. I sorta do it well, but I need time to sound good not thirty seconds. Finally, she asks me to sing Count on Me, she takes out some sort of recording device and turns it on. “Okay, thank you Isla, we will get back to you, you may return to your dorm now.” 

I walk slowly down the hallway to my dorm thinking about what happened. Well I probably failed that, at least I won’t have to do anything, but it was really embarrassing. Wait was that my dorm? Isla, your so stupid, you get lost in your thoughts way to easily. 

Later Melissa leaves for athletics, me and Orath go for academics, and all of us go for arts. After a disgusting supper we are given a paper with our talent schedule on it. “I have singing and ukulele, that’s it.” I’m so glad there’s nothing more, it would of been better if it was nothing though, oh well whatever. 

Melissa speaks up, “I got soccer and swimming, what did you get Orath?”

“I’m doing painting and math”, she mumbles.

She gets bear hugged by Melissa, “that’s my nerd!”

“Don’t call me that Melissa!”, Orath glows red. 

~Timeskip: Next Day~

The next morning during our “talent period” right after breakfast I am told to go back to the room where we were tested. I enter the room, closing the door behind me. The same redheaded commander from the day before sitting, ukulele in hand. She passes it to me, “we’re just going to wait for your duet partner and then we will begin.” Wait what, a DUET partner? Oh no this is bad, very bad, I can’t sing with someone else! She reads my horrified, anxious face, “we measured the frequency of your voices and they match up perfectly duets.” Oh, so that’s what that device she used was. There’s a knock at the door, redhead opens it letting my partner in. 

Lance pov

So I’m singing with Isla, this will be nice, I wonder what type of songs we’ll be singing. The commander gestures for me to sit down next to Isla. “Your voice frequencies have been calculated to be the perfect match for love songs, so that is what you will be doing.” What love song? With her? I’m sorta glad, she’s really pretty, but I hope I don’t get to nervous while singing and mess up. The small girl next to me jumps out of her seat and looks at me, then the commander, and back to me. She almost looks horrified, does she not like me that much? 

She catches my offended look, “I don’t dislike you or anything, but love songs? Is this allowed?” The commander nods, almost sinisterly, hands us both a paper, and looks at us expectantly. I skim through our first duet song recognizing the song, Me!. 

“I expect you both to be ready with this song in two weeks, that’s when the media wants a showcase of your talents.” I breathe in deeply. This will be interesting. The commander lets us out early and I go to my dorm. 

I walk into the room, no one is there, I sit down and call my mom. “Hola mamá, cómo estás? Half an hour later Hunk walks into the room. 

“Hey Lance, what were you doing?”

“I’m singing duets with that cute girl in our class.”

“Who?”, he looks at me annoyed.

“Isla.”

“Oh, that girl you’ve been saying is trying to ignore you?”

“Yeah, anyways what were you doing?”

“Oh, I’m doing culinary arts, it’s so fun!”

“Good for you…” Has she been trying to ignore me, I wonder what I did. 

~Timeskip: Two Weeks~   
Isla pov

I can’t believe it’s been two weeks since me and McClain have been paired up already. We stand in front of the microphones and camera. I gulp, swallowing my fears. Ugh, I hate public things. Lance looks at e in some sort of sympathy? I begin the duet. “I know I’m a handful, baby, uh. I know I never think before I jump. And you’re the kind of guy the ladies want.” Lance smirks, Ugh I hate this song so much. “And there’s a lot of col chicks out there. I know that I went psycho on the phone. I never leave well enough alone. And trouble’s gonna follow where I go. And there’s a lot of cool chicks out there. But one of these things is not like the others. Like a rainbow with all of the colours. Baby doll, when it comes to a lover.I promise you won’t ever find another like me. Me-e-e, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, I’m the only one of me eeh-eeh-eeh, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh you're the only one of you. Baby that’s the fun of you. And I promise that nobody’s gonna love you like me.”

Lance begins his part while I strum the chords on my ukulele. “I know I tend to make it about me. I know you never get just what you see. But I will never bore you baby. And there’s a lot of lame guys out there.”

“And when we had that fight out in the rain, you ran after me and called my name.”

“I never wanna see you walk away. And there’s a lot of lame guys out there.”

We sing together, “‘Cause one of these things is not like the others. Livin’ in winter, I am your summer. Baby doll, when it comes to a lover.”

I stop singing, “I promise you’ll never find another like me-e-e, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh. I’m the only one of me. Let me keep you company. Eeh-eeh-eeh, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, you’re the only one of you. Baby, that’s the fun of you.”

I joined him again, “and I promise that nobody’s gonna love you like me-e-e.”

He starts the bridge, “girl, there ain’t no I in team”

“But you know there is a me.”

“Strike the band up, one, two, three.”

“I promise you’ll never find another like me.”

“Girl there ain’t no I in team.

“But you now there is a me.”

“And you can’t spell awesome without me.”

We sing together, “I promise that you’ll never find another like me-e-e ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh (and I want ya baby). I’m the only one of me (I‘m the only one of me). Baby that’s the fun of me (baby, that’s the fun of me). And I promise that nobody’s gonna love you like me.” 

“Girl, there ain’t no I in team.”

“But you know there is a me.”

“I’m the only one of me.” Our voices mix quite nicely being honest.

“Baby that’s the fun of me.”

“Strike the band up, one, two, three.”

“You can’t spell awesome without me.”

We end the song in sync. “You’re the only one of you, baby that’s the fun of you. And I promise that nobodys gonna love you like me-e-e.” that’s finally over, my fingers hurt, I hope I didn’t mess it up, father would get so mad. 

Redhead opens her mouth, “that was perfect, both of you may go back to your dorms now.” Perfect? Yeah right, I don’t believe it. I begin to make my way to the hallway, Lance following me, taking hold of my wrist. 

“You have a really nice voice, you don’t have anything to worry about.” He smiles at me staring into my eyes. 

I look out of his gaze, “um thank you”, I mumble. He releases me and I sprint away as fast as possible back to my dorm. 

I enter the room where Melissa pounces on me. “It’s your birthday soon, what do you want?”

“Uh, how did you know?”

“Your dad told us”, Orath mumbles.

“Isla tell me what you want!”

“You want to get me something?” I barely know them why do they want to be nice to me so much? 

“Isla, isn’t that what you’re supposed to do?”

“I guess…. I mean I am very cold all of the time so I don’t know, surprise me?”

“Wait you said you have a hover bike right?”

“Yeah, I do Melissa.”

“Okay”, she gives a knowing look to Orath, who gives her a small smile. “This is for you, it’s from someone named Anna, you’re girlfriend?”

“No, she’s my close friend in Newfoundland.” I walk into my room to read the letter. Dear Isla, how have you been doing? School is really weird without my best friend to share it with. I did make a new friend though, his name is Darial Moore, he’s so much like you, probably why we are friends. Don’t worry though, he's not your replacement. How’s life been treating you? Oh yeah, I sent ya twenty bucks for your birthday, but I suppose it’s in the wrong currency… Oh well. Have you made any new friends? What’s the Garrison like? Jacob is going to take the test for entrance next week, I’m so proud of my baby brother. We all have missed you so much, maybe you can come here for the holidays? Anyways, please write back soon. Love ya, your BFF Anna~

How nice of her, I guess I’ll write her back now.

Hi Anna, I’ve been fine I guess, you know my father. Don’t worry I know you wouldn’t replace me this quickly. Thanks for the gift, you didn’t have to but I’ll be sure to get it exchanged. Yeah I made a couple of new friends, their names are Melissa and Oath, they’re dating. The Garrison is pretty cool, it’s huge. There are flight simulators (I’m sure your brother would love them), a cafeteria, over a hundred dorms, I’m completely sure Jacob will like it. There’s no way he won’t get in, I share your pride in him too, you both are like family to me. I hope I can return to see you, but knowing my father… we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. See you soon hopefully, your friend Isla. I stick the folded paper into a yellow envelope and stick it closed with some animal stickers Anna will love. Snail mail is so classic, no wonder my retro friend will only communicate with it. The feeling of opening a letter is so refreshing.


	4. Brother?

“Isla, Islaaaaaa, wake up!”

I slowly open my eyes getting used to the bright lights. I sit up and almost bump into Melissa’s head. “W-what?” 

“Happy birthday Isla! Open your gift now!”

“Melissa, maybe she wants to get ready first?” Thank you for saving my life Orath.

“Oh, right, we’ll leave you to it then.” they both exit my room, a bounce in Melissa’s step. I take a hot shower to wake myself up and refresh me. I get dressed in my uniform and enter the main room of our dorm. Melissa drags me and her girlfriend into the huge dining hall for breakfast. As we eat I am hit in the head with a floppy gift wrapped object. Wow, this wrapping paper is really pretty, I shouldn’t rip it, I don’t wanna ruin it. 

My head snaps up from its eating position and I glare at the perpetrator. “Huh? What was that for Melissa?” 

“It’s your gift silly, open it!”

“Oh okay, thank you.” I pause my eating and carefully unwrap the item, being careful not to rip it. 

“Why are you taking so long, just tear it open!”

“But I really like this galaxy wrapping paper.” I gasp when I remove the black objects from their enclosure. “Are these biker gloves?!”

“They sure are!”, Melissa drawls with a southern accent. Ow, did she have to scream into my left ear for that? 

Orath adds on to her statement, “they are perfect for you because you are always complaining about being cold and you also have a hover bike.”

“Thank you guys so much.” I start to tear up. Seriously Isla, I know this is a rare emotion for you, but get in control of yourself. I know you’re not used to having people care about you, but come on. 

“Do we get hugs from this or anything?” Melissa looks intently at me expecting something. 

“Oh, I guess if you want one”, I blush from embarrassment. I get up from my seat and give both of them an awkward combined hug. I sit back down and we continue eating, but are interrupted by my father. He hands me a brown envelope with many stamps and stickers on it.

“It’s from your abuela, she sent you this for your birthday.” Oh, so he hasn’t changed, nothing for me this year… he could of at least wished me a happy birthday though. Oh well, can’t expect anything from that man. 

“Thank you father, have a good day.” melissa and Orath glance at me with weird looks displaying on their faces. “My father, he doesn’t believe in giving gifts for another year of survival. My abuela enjoys spoiling me though.” I lie through clenched teeth. 

“That’s really weird, what about your mom?” Oh right, I forgot that I haven’t told them about her yet. No better time than the present I suppose. 

“Um well, she did give me gifts, but she died when I was like ten…” My voice becomes almost too quiet to be heard. 

“Aw, you poor thing…”, Melissa latched on to me. 

“It was a long time ago, it’s fine.” We finish eating and head back to our dor. So glad it’s the weekend, I can do whatever I want on my birthday. I sit down on my bed too lazy to change out of my uniform. I take out my phone, ready to watch a new episode of an anime I recently fell in love with. I hear a loud banging noise from the dorm’s front door. With quick footsteps running to it. I hear some muffled voices and as soon as I untangle my earbuds I’m summoned. 

“Isla It's for you”, Orath yells just loud enough for me to hear. 

“I’m on my way”, I setdown my stuff and go to the open door where Orath and Commander Iverson are waiting for me. Orath takes leave of her position next to the door and goes into Melissa’s room. “Um, yes commander sir”, I salute.

“At ease cadet, I have an errand I need you to run for me. Can you take on of the hover bikes into town and pick up some items for us? The staff have an important meeting soon and your father recommended you for the job.” Of course, my father has another way to make me do more work. Although it would be nice to get out of here for a while. 

“Of course sir, is there any special requirements for me to follow?”

“You should wear your uniform, it may get you some discounts. I can tell you will go far in the Garrison with your attitude, much better than that Kogane kid.” Who's that? He hands me a hundred dollar bill, “make sure to bring back the change.” Wow, why is he trusting me so much? 

“Yes sir, can you show me where the hover bikes are, just a second first though.”

“Okay cadet.” I run back into my room, putting on my brown utility belt and black biker gloves with no fingers. I go back into the commander and follow him to the parking garage. He points to a bike, “you may use this hover bike.”

“Thank you sir”, he nods, handing me a piece of paper and the keys to the bike. I hop on it and drive to the nearest town, about an hour away from the Garrison. The wind flows through my loose hair. I feel so free out here, it’s such a nice feeling. Wait, it’s been a while since me and Silver have talked, Silver are you okay?! 

‘Don’t sound so panicked child, I am fine, you asked me nt to bother you remember?’

But I didn’t mean during weekends.

‘You think I can tell the days when I am stuck in a dark cave 24/7?’

Oh, right, sorry about that, I’m just driving now so we can speak. 

‘It’s been getting pretty boring here doing nothing and seeing no one, I’ve missed you.’

I’ve been missing you as well, I can’t wait till I get out of the Garrison and be with you, you’re like my closest friend. 

‘Don’t throw away your future like that paladin, don’t forget about it.’

I sigh, defeated. Yeah, I guess you’re right Silver.

‘Of course I am, I’ve been around for over ten thousand years, that’s a long time to become wise.’

Wow, can you tell me about your pst, I don’t remember you ever telling me about it.

‘It is about time you know…’ She sighs and I feel the sadness radiating off of her. ‘I was one of the last six of my species alive, there was Kalama, Daphne, Varsha, Cirocco, and Pierce, my name was Xyra. We were a species similar to your lions here on earth, the six of us were a pride. Cirocco was our leader with Kalama as his right hand lioness. There are six elements, fire, water, air, earth, plants, and psyche, each with its own divisions of power. Each lion has a power of one of those divisions. Kalama’s was lava, Daphne's was growth, Pierce’s was stone, Varsha’s was ice, Cirocco’s was flight, and mine was dreams. Each pride is unable to mate within itself, so our race was doomed. But a king from another planet called Altea was able to make these robots to prolong our lives. When we agreed to this we were not informed that we would become warships. It was against our will, everyone got over it except for me. The five of them were able to combine into a giant man-shaped thing. I was not a part of this, I was created as a replacement part. Th Altean kingdid not tell a soul about me, or his backhanded deal with us. No one probably even knows about us being anything except for giant robots. Each of them received a paladin, but I got none. I was abandoned and cast to the side. This is probably what drew me to you instead of other humans. You are my first ever paladin and you have made me so happy. I believe that because of you I am become less furious at that traitor king. I thank you for this, anywaysI was soon sent away because of my “acting out”. I ended up on earth, it’s where I have waited for at least ten thousand years. I have not had any contact with my pride in millenia.’

Silver, or should I call you Xyra? That is terrible, how could someone do that to you, it is so mean. If that king is somehow still around and I meet him he will get along lecture. 

She laughs, ‘I doubt that you will meet him, but you have my gratitude anyways. You can call me whichever you like, although I have gotten accustomed to “Silver”. I wouldn't mind Xyra either.’

I pull up in front of a supermarket, parking the hover bike. I walk into the shop, the automatic doors sliding open for me. I walk up to the front counter, “excuse me miss, can I help you?” A short man with graying hair addresses me. 

“Um yes, do u have those robot things that take your list and do the shopping for you?”

“We do”, he skans my uniform, “for the Garrison, correct?”

“Affirmative.” Why am I being so formal? Sil-Xyra, stop laughing at me.

“I’ll go get one from the back room, I will return in a moment.” he brings a sad looking robot to me. “Do you have a shopping list?”

“Yes, here”, I hand him the paper and he places it in a slot on the bot.

“He will be back with your items in about half an hour, please be back by then.” I take out my phone and set an alarm for half an hour.

“Will do, is there a coffee or art shop nearby?”

“Yes, there is both, there’s a Starbucks across the street and an art store behind it.”

“Thank you sir”, I exit the supermarket and walk to the art shop. I look around it finding nothing interesting there. I go to the coffee shop instead and line up to order something. 

A black haired boy behind the counter takes my order. “Good morning, what can I get yo- wait are you that girl who sings those duets with the guy from the Garrison?!”

“Um yes, I guess so, am I popular or something?” Oh, I hope not, I wouldn’t be able to survive fans. 

“Not really.”

“Good.”

“But you’re Isla Patterson right?”

“Yeah.”

“Your father is Alejandro Patterson?”

“Yes?”

“He was my mother’s boyfriend, she got pregnant and he left her alone with me.”

“I can see him doing something like that”, I say in a monotone voice.

“What?!”

“He’s not the nicest person out there, anyways, you seem nice, let’s exchange phone numbers, your my closest family other than him.”

“Oh yeah, sure, you seem nice as well.” Yeah, sure I do. “I’ll just write it down on your cup when you give me your order.”

“Okay, can I have a strawberry and cream drink?”

“sure , it’ll be ready in a minute.” I it down at a nearby table. I pull out my phone and check my timer. Oh no, I have five minutes to be back at that supermarket and an hour to get to the Garrison. That’s how long it takes to drive there, I’m going to be so late. 

“Isla?”, I run up to the counter, hand the money to my half sibling and run back to the supermarket. I barely got to the front counter there without spilling my drink. 

“Good timing, I was about to put your stuff back. It’ll be seventy five dollars and thirty cents. I dig through one of my pouches and pull out a hundred dollar bill Commander Iverson gave to me. I hand it to him and receive the change and bags, I rush out to the parking lot and hover bike. I hope I won’t be too late. I take a strong grip on the handles, knowing what my father would do if I messed up again. Don’t need anymore pain… wait don’t I do that to myself anyways? Eh, whatever.

‘You WHAT?! You hurt yourself?’

Oh no, I meant like I am clumsy and walk into things Xyra.

‘Oh sure, I will be paying close attention to you now’, I gulp

The drive back to the Garrison was awkward between me and Xyra. I returned to late, Commander Iverson waiting for me in the garage. I take off my helmet, “I told you to be here fourteen minutes ago.”

“I’m sorry sir, it won’t happen again.”

“Be sure of it”, I hand him the bags and change. I returned to my dorm, which is empty because I missed lunch. Oh no, I made the commandr miss lunch, I don’t wanna know what the punishment will be. I’m sorta hungry, I guess I still have the drink I forgot to finish earlier. I finish it while watching the anime I was going to see before.

“Hey Isla, how was that errand? Ooh whatcha got there, a phone number? Oh crap, she noticed the cup, great she’s gonna make a huge deal of it. 

“Um yeah, I met my half brother at a coffee shop and we wanted to stay in touch.”

“You better be telling the truth, to be honest I don’t wanna lose you to some stupid guy.”

“Oh… wait what? Lose me?” She came closer to me, pressing me against my bed. “What are you doing Melisa?”

“Do you love me back Isla?”

“What no, you have a girlfriend.”

“Orath doesn’t need to know about this, right?” I gulp, she presses even closer to my body. I feel her breath on my neck and heartbeat. 

“Melissa stop, this isn’t right.”

“But it sure does feel right”, she whispers in my ear. She straddles my lap and leans in an inch away from my face. I don’t want Melissa to be my first kiss, please something help me, PLEASE! 

Melissa? Isla? Where are you?” thank you so much Orath, you are my savior now.

Melissa removes herself from me. “We’ll talk about this soon.”, she leaves the room. “Sorry Orath, we just had to talk about something.” Poor girl, she’s too good for a cheater like Melissa. I have no respect left for her now, that was sad. I should probably text my half brother, I don’t even know his name yet. I type his number into a new message. 

‘Hey, I just realized I never got your name’

‘My name is Dakota Park’

‘Ok, thanks’

‘So what’s the garrison like? I always wanted to become a pilot there, but my mom didn’t have the money’

‘Oh, I’m only there because my father got a job there, I wanted to join the marine corps in Newfoundland’

Oh, you’re from Newfoundland, now your accent makes sense’

‘Yeah, that’s what they all say lol’ 

Maybe a real friend who doesn’t want to take advantage of me now? About time, Melissa. We continue to converse until I am dragged away by Melissa to supper. 

~Timeskip: That Night~  
Third Person pov

That night Isla was called to her father’s room. She was beaten worse than ever before. She somehow dragged herself back to her dorm where she nursed her wounds. She did not release a single tear. She had already been pushed past the point of caring. 

She entered her onsweet washroom and opened a drawer. She took out an old floss container which held a couple small razor blades. She rolled up the sleeves of her lavender nightgown, drawing on her skin with delicate swipes of the blades. She cut from her wrist to her elbow, several cuts bleeding out and dripping onto the floor on both arms. “Why am I not crying?”, she thought. “Why do I not care? Why do I not feel anything? What is wrong with me?”

Once she could no longer see the colour of her skin she decided to clean up her wounds and the floor. She poured hydrogen peroxide on her wounds, almost fainting from the stinging sensation. She took out a couple long bandages and wrapped her arms with them, pulling down her sleeves over them. She took out an old rag and soaked it in water, wiping up the blood on the floor, and wringing it out in the sink. Repeating the process multiple times until you could not see that anything ever happened there.

She exited the room of horrors and fell into a fitful sleep. Dreaming about her father and Melissa haunting her.

“Be my baby Isla, I want you, do you not want me?”

“No, I don’t, leave me alone Melissa!”

“Now why would she do that daughter?” Alejandro held his daughter in place while Melissa kissed her. They then switched roles, Melissa holding her back and Isla’s father hitting her. 

“Isla, Isla”, Orath shook her friend. Isla opened her eyes, recognizing the face in front of her. “Isla, it was just a bad dream, are you okay? Do you want to talk about it?”

“Thanks, but no thanks Orath, this is pretty personal, but thank you for caring.”

Orath looked sadly at the sweating girl in front of her. “You’re welcome, if you ever do want to talk about it, I’ll listen.” she left Isla alone in the dark. 

“Why does she care? She’s too good for Melissa. I can’t believe who is underneath that happy, caring friendly mask.” Isla drifted to sleep with her thoughts.


	5. Backstabbing?

Melissa pov

Finally it’s transition time, I can find that cutie who needs to finish her conversation with me. Now where would she be? Ah ha, right over there. I’m so smart. I follow her and pull her into a dark corner, covering her mouth so she doesn’t draw attention to us. “Look this isn’t rational, it’s physical.”

She pulls my hand away from her mouth. “I don’t care what it is, I don’t return your feelings.”

“But we can work this out, it’ll be ok.” Why isn’t she giving in already, I’m amazing. “Just be mine and you’ll be fine.” She looks for an escape with a blank face. I wrap my arms around her waist to to prevent her from getting away. She slaps my hands, glaring coldly at me, rushing out and away from me. Och, that hurt. I warned her, now to talk to that Morgans girl. Isla’s life is about to get interesting. 

~Timeskip: Dinner~  
Cassandra pov.

“Hahahaha , girl you should totally go for him. You would be like so cute together.”

“You think so Sandra?”

Ew, no that would be disgusting, he’s mine. “Duh, like of course!”

“Excuse me, Cassandra, Isla asked me to give this to you. I have no idea what it’s about.” She hands me an envelope. I wonder what this is about, did she finally decide that I’m a better option than those losers?

“Ew what are you doing at the best table pink haired slut?”

“Girls, shut up let the poor thing speak. Um, thanks uh, Melissa, I don’t know what it is either.” She walks away, rushing to her table. Now to see what this rejector wants with me. 

“Sandra open it already, let’s see what the loser wants.” I tear the envelope apart and take a look at the letter. “Don’t look girls, this might be private.”

“Ugh, fine.”

I didn’t tell you this, but Orath and Melissa are dating each other. Don’t get me wrong I still hate you, but they are so annoying. Do whatever you want with this information just don’t say I told you. Don’t talk to me about this, ever.

“Sandra, why are you laughing?”

“I just found out how to make those weirdos suffer, that’s it.” My friends join in on the laughing. This will be very entertaining. 

~Timeskip: Next Morning~  
Isla pov.

“Aaaggghhh! How did this happen, I’ll kill them!”

Ugh, who did what? What is happening? “Orath?! What is it?!

“Someone told about me and Melissa!” She growls.

I get up from my comfy mattress that was calling me to stay. I go to the front of our dorm to see posters, drawings, and graffitti making fun of them for being lesbian. “Well, let’s think logically, who have you told?”

“Only the three of us know about it.” She looks accusingly towards me. 

“What? Me I wouldn’t, I would never-”

“Find a new dorm.”

“What?”

“I said get out you worthless backstabbing daughter of a-”

“Hey, Orath what’s happening here?” She looks at the door. “Oh”, she looks at me.

“I swear I’d never do that Melissa.” They both glare at me.

“I-I’m sorry this happened but you can’t just say it was me ‘cause it wasn’t.” Orath grunts, “Orath? M-Melissa? Guys?” Is this Melissa’s way of getting back at me for not wanting her to cheat on Orath with me? Really, all this for that, poor Orath, does she mean nothing?

“Isla, it’s time for you to pack up and leave.”

“Can I do that? Like where would I go. Can you actually kick me out?”

Orath groans, “fine, I’ll go ask if you can leave.”

I go back into my room, changing out of my lilac nightgown to the orange Garrison uniform. I can’t believe it, my only friends and now they aren’t anymore. I guess father was right, I don't mean anything to anyone.

“Isla, they said that you can move into dorm number 124, but you have to move in an hour.” I look at my portable calendar. Well great, an hour until breakfast, I better get packing. Thanks a lot Melissa, well I think at least.

I finish packing my belongings with ten minutes to spare I take a few trips to my new dorm, where there are no signs of human life. Well, this is gonna be lonely, oh well, at least here I can’t bother anyone. 

I make my way to the dining hall, pulling out my phone to text my brother. It’s surprising how close we’ve gotten in the past few days. He doesn't know about my self harm and never will, but he knows most other things. It’ll be good to tell someone who actually cares about my current situation. 

‘Hey Dakota’

‘Yeah’

‘Well I was kicked out of my dorm for doing something I didn’t and now I’m by myself in another dorm’

‘Well that’s too bad

‘Just a bit upsetting ya know’

‘Yep,so you have no friends now?’

Basically’

I explain my theory of Melissa’s backstabbing to him. He agreed that’s what most likely happened.

I put away my device and line up to receive my breakfast. A guy with long black hair is behind the counter. w-wait , oh my gosh, is that really a mullet, this is sorta funny like why would yo-

“Um hello? I said do you want eggs or tofu?” He says quite rudely.

“Oh, um sorry, tofu please.”

He softens a bit at my response, scoping some tofu onto my plate and handing my plate to the next person. “Apples or oranges?”, a girl around my age asks. “Oranges please.” she hands me the plate. “Thanks guys.” I try to smile at them and move on. I somehow found a table with no one at it and sit down. 

Hey Xyra, how are you holding up?

‘I’m faring better than you seem to these days.

I mean, that’s not too hard.

‘Yeah, that is true.’

You’re from somewhere else in the universe, correct?

‘Yes, why?’

Can you take me to live there?

‘No, my planet was destroyed after we became robots.’

Oh, well, can you take me to live in space then?

‘But your future, think about it.’

Xyra, I have no future here. My father’s abusive, people are turning on me, my friends from home never talk to me, my mom’s dead, I’ll probably die with all this pain to be honest.

‘What do you mean by”die”?’

Huh, well nothing really…

‘You wouldn’t actually kill yourself, would you? Think of me and Dakota!’

Dakota hasn’t known me that long, he’ll get over it. You can find a more worthy paladin. 

‘No! Come on, I was pushed aside too, you can make it through this.’

Take me away from this stupid, pathetic planet, and I’ll be alive. 

‘Okay, okay, fine, if that is the only way. It’s been so long, I don’t remember my way around that well.’ 

I’m sure we’ll figure it all out. Thank you so much, I’ll prepare us for the trip.

I finish my food and head to the “talent room”. “Isla, you’re late.”

“I know, I’m sorry commander.”

“Do you have your ukulele?” I hold it up nodding. “Your next song will be one written by Lance.”

Huh, he can actually write music? Wait is that a guitar in his hands?

“I didn’t know you could write music.”

“There’s a lot you don’t know about me.” He gestures to himself. 

“Anyways cadets, I’ll give you the music to practice, and you can be on your way.” She hands us both a paper, which Lance promptly tears in half. 

“I wrote this song, I’m not gonna need this.”

The redhead sighs, “I suppose not, well at the end of the week we’ll be recording this, so get to work.”

She leaves us alone and Lance demonstrates the song for me on his guitar. I get the feel and rhythm of the song, leaving to practice in the security of my dorm.

Why do they have to make me do love songs with the flirty kid. Like honestly it is so uncomfortable. I run through the song twice and go through my items, picking what I want to take with me to space. Well, I want everything. I guess there are a couple things I don’t need, why am I such a hoarder?

I packed up my belongings that I wouldn’t be needing. When should we leave Xyra?

‘I don’t know, you’re the one who wants to go, you decide.’

Hmmm, salty.

‘Shut up Isla, I didn’t ask you.’

I mean technically…

‘Ugh, child stop it, just quit it.’

I laugh.Ok we’ll leave during the break period on Thursday.

~Timeskip: Thursday Morning~

I enter the sound room with Lance following not far behind. I hold the door open for him by standing in front of the sensors. “Thanks Isla”, he winks. Ugh, why must he do these ridiculous things, honestly. I follow him inside, we pick up our respective instruments, tuning them. We then stand up, at redheads command and practice the song together. 

He starts the song. “Do you hear me, I'm talking to you. Across the water across the deep blue ocean, under the open sky, oh my, baby I'm trying.”  
I start my verse. “Boy I hear you in my dreams, I feel your whisper across the sea. I keep you with me in my heart, you make it easier when life gets hard.”  
We sing together, “I'm lucky I'm in love with my best friend. Lucky to have been where I have been. Lucky to be coming home again. Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh. They don't know how long it takes. Waiting for a love like this. Every time we say goodbye. I wish we had one more kiss. Ugh, gross, don’t make me puke. I'll wait for you I promise you, I will. I'm lucky I'm in love with my best friend. Lucky to have been where I have been. Lucky to be coming home again. Lucky we're in love in every way. Lucky to have stayed where we have stayed. Lucky to be coming home someday.”  
He sings alone again, “And so I'm sailing through the sea. To an island where we'll meet. You'll hear the music fill the air. I'll put a flower in your hair.”  
He stops and I start. “Though the breezes through the trees. Move so pretty you're all I see. As the world keeps spinning round. You hold me right here right now.”  
We join together one last time. “I'm lucky I'm in love with my best friend. Lucky to have been where I have been. Lucky to be coming home again. I'm lucky we're in love in every way. Lucky to have stayed where we have stayed. Lucky to be coming home someday. Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh. Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh.”  
We sit down, out of breath and I catch Lance staring at me. He quickly glanced away and the commander tells us to get lost. I stand up and walk away, anticipating my soon journey.   
McClain had other plans though. He ran up beside me and linked our arms together. “Hey, you know you sound very nice an-and so do I.”  
I stop walking and turned to face him, “yes?”  
“Well, I don’t know why I said that, do you think, during our free time, you’d go with me and hang out or something?”  
“I’m sorry Lance, but I won’t be around much longer. I don’t want anyone to get too attached to me.” I take my arm out of his and continue on my way.   
He runs back to me, “we could still text each other though when you’re gone, so does it really matter?”  
I chuckle dryly, “i-it doesn’t work that way McClain.”  
“What?! You’re not gonna kill yourself right?! Because you can’t, you just can’t.”  
It would be best to make people think that, so they don’t go out there to find me and lose lives. “Sorry Lance, I can’t go with you right now, see ya around.” Well, not really, but whatever.  
I run to my dorm, thankful for the free period that I don’t have to answer any questions. He’s most likely going to tell someone I’m committing suicide, I better get going. I grab my belongings that I somehow narrowed down to one small suitcase, a backpack, and a ukulele case. Should I write a note like most self murderers would? Eh, might as well it’s not like I’ll ever see any of them again or anything. I take out a paper and pen, writing down the words, ‘good riddance, I know’. I won’t be missed. I’ve accepted that already.  
I pick up my bags and instrument, leaving my dorm room behind me. I find myself in the garage, next to my purple hover bike. I take out my phone before hopping on the bike, sending a last text to Dakota.   
‘I just thought that I should say goodbye, adios Dakota’   
Before he gets a chance to reply, I throw my phone to the pavement in front of my hoverbike. I sit down on the seat and pull back the handlebars, starting the engine. I drive to the nearest town, Engleheim, about an hour away. Xyra, I can’t believe I just did that.  
‘Being truthful, I can’t believe you had that in you, but at least you’re getting away from that man.’  
Wow, thanks a lot, but actually I can’t wait to see space with my own eyes.


	6. Takeoff

I walk out the last store carrying two baskets of my favorite food, peanut butter chocolate protein bars. As the treats were falling out of my control, I bump into the glass window of a car, to be more specific, my father’s classic car. 

“Isla Runa Patterson, what are you doing out here, you are to be at the Garrison at all times.”

I stare up to his towering figure, “Yes father, but I was given special permission to leave the Garrison for a short while.”

“I suppose that is fine then, but what is all this food for?”, he asks gesturing to my purple bike full to the brim with snacks. 

“It’s for the Garrison, they want me to bring them for something, I have no idea what for though,” I say through clenched teeth.

He rolls his eyes at my antics and brushes past me, entering the store. I jump onto my bike and hover to the Arizona desert. I look around at the same scenery I’ve known for years but never gotten used to. 

It takes about an hour and a half for me to finally reach the huge caverns near my house. I pull the baggage off of my bike and carry it to where I think I remember the entrance was. It takes a while of feeling the wall but I finally found the button, pressing it as I see the cave. I subconsciously drop my items, running to her for dear life. “Xrya! Oh my gosh, finally!”, I crawl onto her large paw.

‘It has been way too long, my dear friend.’

Oh.. I dropped my bags, be right back. Xyra laughed at my forgetfulness, making me not as embarrassed. I pick up my bags and walk back over to Xyra, her head lowering to the floor. She opens her mouth, letting me inside the cockpit. I set down my bags in a storage closet and sit down on the seat, my feet barely touching the ground. The chair quickly moves forwards and I take the steering sticks, pushing them all the way forward. Xyra takes off with a speed I’ve never seen before. You’ve been waiting for this haven’t you.

‘But of course’, I can almost hear the smirk in her reply. 

Well, you’re probably going to get tired of it soon, we’ll be doing this for a while...why are you just flying around earth at neck breaking speeds? You’re gonna get dizzy, I already feel lightheaded.

‘Oh, I thought that you would want to see all of your planet before you leave forever.’

Thanks for the thought, but I’m feeling sick, so you should probably stop before there’s puke in your head.

‘Okay, I don’t want that staining my insides.’

We soot out of the atmosphere and I let out the breath I didn’t know I was holding. I store out the front window, taking in the sights of the beautiful universe I lived in. I lean back against the seat, letting Xyra have full control. 

~Timeskip: That afternoon~

‘Isla, you should wake up.’   
“Ugh” What time is it Silver?

‘Well, you haven’t called me that in a while.’

Oh, sorry Xrya, I didn’t mean to.

‘It’s fine’

What time is it?

‘No idea, but I’m sure you’re still tired.’

Ya got that right.

‘Do you want me to keep going or stop on a planet?

You should stop, you need rest too

‘Not really, i’m powered by a comet, I don’t need sleep, food, or water.

Well we are in no rush, is there a planet nearby?

‘Yes, in fact we are about to a star system.’

Ooh. wow look, it’s a binary system, I know they are common, but I’ve never seen one!

‘Well, you’ve never seen any of space.’

I know! It takes my breath away, I don’t know how I’m still breathing.

We land on a pink coloured planet, it has a beautiful golden atmosphere. It is covered in what looks to be pink fluffy plants and surrounding it are tiny green moon-asteroid things. I walk out of the cockpit and go to a side closet. I take out some of my favorite food and eat it. Xyra, is the air outside breathable for me?

‘Yes, actually it is surprisingly similar to earth’s atmospheric composition. You may go outside if you wish, although I do not know if there are hostile life forms.’

Aliens? Wow, could I be the first human to meet them? Not that I could boast about it since there are no humans around. 

‘I highly doubt it, there are so many alien stories on earth.’

I guess so, well I’m just going to explore for a bit.

‘Go ahead.’

I step out of her mouth, onto the bouncy ground. Man, this place is stunning. A sudden burst of wind almost knocks me to the ground, my light brunette hair flowing in the wind. Whoa, what was that?

‘I don’t know, but I sense a danger, come inside at once.’

If I must. I take one last look at the planet and go back inside the humongous lioness. I go through my suitcase, pulling out lavender pajamas, a light blue blanket, and white pillow. I change, bringing my bedding to the pilots seat. I make a small nest, curling into a ball, Xyra’s soft purrs lulling me to sleep. 

I shiver, feeling an arm wrap around me from behind. “Isla, I found you, did you really think that space could keep us apart? We are destined to be together.”

“Melissa?” I look up to see bright pink hair and amber eyes. I gas, “no-”

~Timeskip: Earlier That Afternoon~  
Lance pov

Will she really do it? She’s so nice and pretty, why would she do it? Her dad is here, she’s not even missing her parents like most of us. Hmm, should I tell anyone? Duh, I might save her life. But what if she hates me after it? Stop thinking, you must get moving before something bad happens, idiot. 

I knock on the cool metal door, my body beginning to shake at the news I had to deliver. Is he going to answer? Is he even here? I’ll give it about five minutes. I feel a presence behind me, turning around I see ??Commander?? Shirogane. 

“Mr. Patterson left about an hour ago to get some things from town. Can I help you instead?”

“Well...his daughter is about to kill herself…”

“What!? We better go find her before that happens then! Do you know where she is?”

“Last I saw her she was going to her dorm I think.” He grabs my wrist and takes off running in the direction of the dorms. Once we find the dorm saying, ‘Isla Patterson’, shiro starts banging on the door yelling. 

“Isla! Isla! Isla, open up the door!”

I join in, “please, Isla, we want to help you, just let us in.” We somehow pry the door open and search for the girl. I look inside of her washroom, seeing nothing there, there was barely anything anywhere. “I wonder why it’s so empty here.”

“Yes, it does seem bare...oh, oh no, Lance come here.”

“What is it- oh…” I spot a folded paper on the gray metal desk in the far corner. I gingerly pick it up, scared that it might disappear for some reason. I open it up and seeing no name, I read the short words. ‘Good riddance, I know.’ What? Does she think that little of herself? I show the words to Commander Shirogane, he gasps, covering his mouth with his hands. “Are we- are we too late?”

“No, no we can’t be, I’m going to call a meeting.”

“Ok, I’ll just go to my dorm then…”

“What? No you’re coming with me.”

“Huh- really?!”

“Uh, yes, you were the last to see her.”

“O-oh, of course.”

I follow him to a large meeting room, I look around at all of the commanders, senior officers, and professors. I don’t see Mr. Patterson anywhere. Commander Shirogane motions for everyone to sit down, he continues standing while I sit down next to him. “We believe that one of the cadets has or is about to commit suicide, we have no idea where she is.”

“And who exactly is this cadet?”

“Isla Patterson.”

~Timeskip: An Hour Later~  
Alejandro Patterson pov

Why does the Garrison trust Isla so much, she is always doing them favors. Oh well, she hasn’t told anyone about my secrets, so I’m safe. My phone rings interrupting my thoughts. “This Alejandro Patterson.”

“Yes, we believe your daughter has or will commit suicide.” What?! Am I seriously too much for her. But why would they think that? 

“Why do you say that, wasn’t she just on an errand for the Garrison?” I hear a pause on the other side of the line along with some muffled voices. 

A confused voice came back on the line, “nobody sent Isla on an errand.” oh, that brat, she must have lied to me, she will pay. “Please return to the Garrison ASAP.”

“Will do.” I end the phone call and open the door to my car. This girl will wish she wasn’t alive when I get through with her. I hope she didn’t write a letter saying I was the reason that she ran away and this is just a trap to catch me. I push my keys into the ignition and begin to pull out of my parking slot. What if this entire time everyone knew and last night made them finally trap me. What if I’m going to jail?! No, no you’re just being paranoid. Isla is too scared to ask for help, she thinks she can be fine by herself. She’s “strong”. 

~Timeskip: That Evening~  
Anna pov

“Anna!! Get over here you need to see this! It’s Isla!”

“Jacob what is it?”, I walk into the cozy living room beside our shop. I see our television showing an image of Isla in an orange and white uniform, she had a gold stripe on her shoulders. 

“It is believed that a cadet at the Galaxy Garrison has committed suicide, 16 year old girl Isla Patterson has gone missing, leaving behind a letter saying ‘Good ridance, I know.” Authorities are currently searching the surrounding area for a body, dead or alive. On to a more positive article-” Jacob shut off the TV with a scared look on his face.

“I-I can’t beli-believe that she would.” I take my baby brother’s hands in mine, soon after wrapping my arms around him. I feel him tremble in my tight embrace. Obviously as close to tears as I was, well closer actually, his tears began to collect on my red shirt. We sit down on a gray loveseat, holding each other and sobbing. My mother soon enters the room, put out of place my our odd behavior. 

“Children, what’s gotten into you?”

“The-they think Isla killed herself.”

“Who, why, how?!”

“It was on the news m-mom!”

She rushes over to envelop us tightly, “I’m so sorry, we are all going to miss her so much.”

Dakota pov

Wait what? Why would she do this? My only nice living relative and she’s gone. I know she was going through a lot, but still. I guess I should reply to her message from before in case she is still alive. I can’t believe I thought she would joke about something as serious as this. I’m not that bright, now am I? 

‘Isla, if you’re still there, please stay alive and come back to us, we’ll all miss you, especially me, you’re my only good relative, please.’

We’ll I doubt that did anything, oh well, I tried I guess. I place my hands over my eyes leaning on my desk. What am I thinking? Of course that isn’t enough, she was like a little sister to me for the few weeks I knew her. I feel liquid drip through my fingers.

Third person pov

The news report played on the large screen and speakers during dinner. It shocked all of the cadets. Some of them could be found in tears or shaking their heads, but many didn’t even react. They didn’t know her, talk to her, like her, why should it make a difference to them if she was alive or not? 

Lance could be seen shaking, feeling that he could have stopped her. It was his fault, he’s worthless, he just let her die. Hunk looked over at his best friend in sadness, reading his thoughts like an open book. 

Orath was shocked, but looked at how she had treated Isla the past week. She was ashamed, she shouldn’t have reacted so harshly, she had no proof that it was Isla. now she was dead, no time for apologies she came to the conclusion that it was her fault. She wanted a second chance to start all over again. Deep down she knew that her time had already passed, no redemption now. She would feel forever responsible. 

Beside her, Melissa was shocked, or at least trying to appear as such. She knew it would happen sooner or later, she didn’t care. Isla rejected her, deprived her of her wishes, should she care about someone who didn’t? She had even wanted this to happen, since Isla had the possibility of ratting her out. She didn’t want anyone to know she was a sociopath. 

Shiro looked at how the commanders were handling the death of their pupil. Sam Holt was discreetly wiping tears, hiding his face behind shaking hands. Iverson had his head lowered, crease marks on his forehead showing his worry. The admiral was even seen showing high amounts of remorse and sadness. Shiro himself himself was holding back tears, Adam rubbing circles on the back of his hands in comfort. Adam didn’t seem to react to the news much, making Takashi wonder if there was something he still didn’t know about his boyfriend. It was very obvious that many would not be getting that much rest that night. They would all be pondering what they could have done to prevent a death. Shiro found his gaze resting upon the figure of a certain Cuban, knowing that he would most certainly place the blame on himself. Everyone was quiet, picking at their food, not eating. Well, not everybody...

“Wow Kyle, you are amazing, I can’t believe you and James really said that to the emo. You are so cool!”

“Thanks babe.”

“Oh my gosh, Sarah, your eyeliner is so on fleek today!”

“So is your eyeshadow Sandra!”

“Aww, you’re so sweet! I can’t believe that idiot girl really caused this much disturbance today. Like who cares about some worthless person. She was right, it was a good riddance.”

“I know right!”

Alejandro looked down to the rowdy group of “cool” cadets. He smiled knowing how right they were, his daughter was the reason his precious, beautiful, angelic wife was gone. So what did she deserve, certainly not good things and love! She took that away from him, so why should she have it from him and others? He noticed Commander Shirogane looking at him from the corner of his eye, he quickly plastered on a hopeless expression. 

~Time Skip: That Night~  
Xyra pov

I feel a cold, dry sensation moving upwards from my robotic paws to my shoulders. I turn on my outer eyes, seeing an orange glow shining through the pitch black night. What is this? A tiny robotic arm goes out of my shell. It captured some of the substance in a bottle and brings it back inside of me. A system analyzes its composition, a warning sign popping up on a screen in my cockpit. ‘Warning, poisonous substance detected.’

I take off of the planet, pushing up through the gravity. I bring up a map, looking for a nearby planet. I find one quite far away from my current location and take a path there. That’s weird, is there only one planet in this star system? There should be a closer planet than that. 

“Arghhh!!”

Isla?! Oh no, what’s wrong?! Is she hurting herself again?! ‘Isla, what is wrong?’ The screaming suddenly halts and I hear faint snoring sound from Isla. oh, it was just a dream, a nightmare I should say. That’s good, I wonder what it is about. 

Isla pov

My father takes out a small dagger. What? This is s-so why, wha-what did I ever do to him? He’s never used an actual weapon on me before. “What did I ever do to you father?”

“You didn’t need to do anything.”

Why must he always do things without thinking? No reason or logic behind his actions. He starts moving towards me, ramming it into my left side. I Feel a building pressure around and in my rib cage. The pressure quickly becomes a burning pain taking over my brain. I let out a blood curdling scream at his actions. 

He melts into thin air, a horrifying smirk imprinting my memories. His figure is replaced with a calming living room with a flaming fireplace. My mother appears on one of the quilted couches. I run to her side, my pain slowly being forgotten as I am embraced by unfamiliar arms. Has it really been so long that this no longer feels right? What is wrong with me? “Mo-mom is that really you?”

“Yes my dear, it is, let your worries out.” 

Oh dear, this will take a while...


	7. New Worlds

I yawn, getting up from the makeshift bed. I take out a portable calendar, December 25, 2064. “It’s Christmas Xyra, do you think you can find a planet with snow?”

‘You want snow?’

“I know I was complaining about it in St.Johns, but you have to have snow for Christmas!”

‘I seem to recall you wishing for a green Christmas.’

“Shhh, we don’t mention that.”

She chuckled a bit, ‘oh alright, I’ll land on this planet over here. It’s white, so it could be covered in snow.’ We entered the albino planet’s atmosphere, the gravity unexpectedly being double that of earth’s. We had a bit of a rough landing, almost falling down a large canyon, that was blocked by low riding clouds. There were so many clouds surrounding this planet that it turns out was blocking the orange surface of the planet. The surface is pretty similar to what some of the commanders have described Mars to be like. I heard Xrya sigh, then we took off again in search of a Canadian winter-esque planet. We leave behind a trail of burning gases. 

We approach another planet after a couple of hours spent blasting music, probably giving Xyra a headache. The planets gravity was 75% of earth’s instead of 200%, we easily go through it’s thin atmosphere speeding down to the crust below. We went so quickly that neither of us noticed the ground getting closer to us. Chunch! “Oof”. 

‘Sorry, I should have been paying closer attention.’

“It’s fine Xyra, I’m not hurt, you’re not hurt, we’re both perfectly fine.”

‘I tested the air, you don’t have to wear a helmet, but it’s cold so put on a jacket.’

“Is there snow?”

‘There’s a window right in front of you, figure it out for yourself.’

“Oh”, I deadpanned, looking out of it, staring into the vast whiteness ahead. “Yes!”, I run out of the lion as fast as I can, forgetting to put on a jacket.

‘Isla!’, Xyra yelled chasing me, ‘what did I tell you?’

Oh, she caught me! Run away!

‘I heard that!’

“Right, I stop, deciding that further resistance was futile. She picks me up in her strong metal jaws. I rip through my boxes for the black winter parka I had somewhere. My excitement for the snow and exploring the planet taking over my body. I finally find it, shoving my arms through it and jumping out of the cockpit and into the snow below. 

I wasn’t expecting the snow to be very deep, I was proved wrong when I slipped through it, my 5’1” frame completely covered. I hear Xyra try to mask her chuckles in my head. Stop, it’s not that funny. 

‘Maybe not, but your height is.’

“Excuse me, we aren’t all ginormous robots, are we?”

‘Suppose not, but still.’ splat! A snowball slides down her left eye, a trail of water blocking her vision. It glows at me menacingly, she starts charging towards me, but not before I get a head start on sprinting away. Only about 500 metres away I run out of breath, my hands resting on my knees, panting heavily. Xyra quickly tries to skid to a stop, but we must have been on some kind of ice because she kept moving towards me. She does eventually stop moving, she does bump into me a bit, pushing my back into a hard, curved, tall thing. I look above me seeing some sort of tree plant thing. Its trunk was pitch black, needles a baby blye, some small salmon flowers on it at random places. 

“Look! It’s perfect! Your first real Christmas tree!”

‘What is a “Christmas tree”?

“It’s a pine tree that you set up in your house during Christmas.”

‘Oh, like that white tree you brought to me when you were twelve?’

I sigh, reminiscing about her confused reaction to me bringing a tiny plastic tree into her cave. “Yeah, well that was artificial, this one is alive!”

‘What do you do with them again?’

“You decorate them and put presents under them! Wait right here, I’ll be right back.”

‘But where ar-’

“It’s a surprise! I promise you’ll like it!”

‘Fine, but be careful.’ I run through the pastel forest, searching for anything to decorate the tree with. I spot a dark wine red vine hanging from another spruce-like tree. I jump up, barely brushing it with my hands. I try again, this time parcouring off of another tree. I grasp the rough vine, a burning feeling shocking my body, the sensation rushing through my shocked body. I drop the “vine”, it apparently wasn’t what it seemed to be, it growled. Hundreds of skinny legs sprouting from it like a millipede, five large midnight black eyes opening on both of its sides. It moves towards me, I back up into a tree. It then hops up to lunge at me, but somehow I dodge its attack. I scream for my life and sprint away to the best of my ability in the snow whilst panicking internally. 

I’m too young to die! Not this way! I won’t let an alien kill me, not today, not ever. Those confident thoughts didn’t do much for my current state though. I ran all the way back to where silver was waiting, at the sound of my screams she stood up, releasing an arm from one of her front paws. In that arms claw was a large glass cylinder, she positions it’s opening. I run past it, hair flowing freely, she snatches up the creature in the cage. It didn’t react much to it’s misfortune, instead letting out a content sound, closing it’s horrific eyes. I wonder if the container is heated and it was just looking for heat?

‘Good thinking young one, yes, it is heated. I would like to make observations of the creatures we come across. Could you draw them?’

“Me? Draw aliens that I see in real life?”

‘Yes?’

“I would, but isn’t it easier to just get a photo of them? Wait an alien? I’m the first human to meet aliens! Oh, the first alien and it’s trying to kill me, aren’t I lucky?”

‘I guess that is much easier, just wait until you meet your first fully sentient alien! This one is very primal compared to many beings out here, so you better be on your watch.’

“Sure”, she opens her mouth and I enter, hissing as my hand begins to burn. 

‘You didn’t touch it, did you?’

“Ummmm…..yes?” 

‘Great, this creature is toxic to the touch, I have no idea how to reverse it’s damage.’

Oh no, I am going to die anyways! I haven’t even been out here for more than a month yet. I might as well give up, but what about Xyra. I’m the only one she has, it wouldn’t be fair to her. I guess I’ll keep on trying to live then..

‘I don’t know what situation you’re in, what will happen, or how to help.’

“Aren’t you supposed to suck it out? Wait, that’s for bites, never mind… Maybe it will just go away?”

‘That’s all we can really do right now, hope for it to go away on its own. There are no advanced civilizations near us.’

“Wait, how do you know that?”

‘There are no radio signals, no X-rays, gamma rays, ultraviolet rays, excetera from an unnatural source.’

“Oh, I guess I’ll just eat and sleep on it then… Merry Christmas to me..and you, you too.” I dig a peanut butter chocolate protein bar from my bag, wolfing it down. Well, it might be the last one I ever eat… I savour the taste and pull out my makeshift bed, settling down between the blankets. My mind drifts off to memories of my life. They flash before my ears like a cheesy death scene in an old movie.

My mom and me sailing on the rough waves for the first time when I was five. 

Anna, Jacob, their parents, my mom, and I at a rocky beach having a picnic. Anna and I was seven and Jacob was six, we were playing hide and seek. 

My first ever award for amazing scores in school when I was ten, when I had finally gotten the hang of how to study. My purple poofy dress bouncing in the wind during the award ceremonies pictures. I remember clearly, my long hair was in two high pigtails, and I was decked out in way too much jewelry. But the one thing I remember the most was my father’s expression, he was proud of me, pleased with me, smiling at me for once without a sinister element. That was the day I would do something so great with my life that he would always be nice to me, so he would like me. Oh how I wish I still wanted his approval and affection, but now I don’t care. He has proven to not want to change, so why should I try for him? From now on, at least if I live, I will do something extraordinary for me, not anyone else. 

My mind drifts off to my grandparents who were in downtown Montreal until almost a decade ago when they both died in a freak accident. I thought of my abuela who was on a ranch in Alberta, her husband dying before I was born. I remember running away from the turkeys, riding the cows, and going to her neighbors house and crying while riding their horses. My mother comforting me while trying not to laugh at my situation. My first ride on a combine with Mr. Smith, her lovely neighbor. I remember being a flower girl at my cousins wedding when I was six…. But that was before my mom died, I haven’t had much contact with my family since my mom died. I’ve forgotten them, they’ve forgotten me. I wouldn’t go back to that evil planet for anyone, not even if we still knew each other. If I came back in a year my name would be erased from all records, all minds, all hearts. I guess I can call myself the forgotten one from now on then. 

I woke up fully paralyzed, I wanted to scream for Xyra, for help, but my mouth was shut. It was a miracle that I could even breath. The feeling of not having anyone to help me brought back memories from my mother’s funeral, her frozen face resting in a smile. I see a ten year old me in a mirror, tears streaming down her blotchy red face, her usual sun kissed complexion lost. I think back to when I thought that her coming back was the only thing that could ever help me. When I still thought she could save me. When I still believed in humanity. Xyra, can you hear me?  
‘Yes? Is something wrong?’

Yeah, I sorta can’t move or speak right now. Must have been that creature. 

‘I guess the only thing I can do is fly around in search of a planet with fully sentient beings.’

The next few days were spent with me lying in bed, only Xyra’s mech arms to help me take care of myself. We must be in a vacuum of life in space. Hah! Did you catch what I did there? 

‘Ugh, don’t ever do that again, ever.’

Hehehe, no promises. She sighs and I look out the windshield, the vast emptiness of blank space enveloping my senses. I suppose we’ll keep drifting on endlessly until we come across life?

‘Yes, that is basically the plan.’

Well can you at least play music then? I’m tired of all the classical you’ve been playing. I never even downloaded classical, how did you get it?

‘I have my ways.’

Okay then, can you play some MCR?

‘What’s that?’

My Chemical Romance.

‘Okay.’

Teenagers scare the living shit out of me!

Xyra gasps at the lyrics and pauses the song. ‘Isla, what is this?!’

Just listen to the whole playlist, I promise you’ll end up enjoying it.

‘Fine, but only because you aren’t feeling well.’

Thank you. She restarts the song. 

They could care less as long as someone’ll bleed.

~Timeskip: Few Hours Later~

Xyra and I ended up singing along to most of the songs. How does she know the words?

‘Without you is how I disappear  
And live my life alone forever now  
And without you is how I disappear  
And live my life alone forever now  
Who walks among the famous living dead?  
Drowns all the boys and girls inside your bed  
And if you could talk to me  
Tell me if it's so  
That all the good girls go to heaven  
Well heaven knows  
That without you is how I disappear  
And live my life alone forever now  
And without you is how I disappear  
And live my life alone forever  
So where's your ride heading?  
Now you're with me back and far  
Saying I will never tell a lie  
Figure out  
I'm really not so with you anymore  
I'm just a ghost  
So I can't hurt you anymore  
So I can't hurt you anymore!!  
And now  
You wanna see how far down  
I can sink?  
Let me go!  
I'm so far away from you  
And without you is how I disappear

And without you is how I disappear

Woah oh oh

Woah oh oh oh

Woah woah oh oh

Woah oh

Forever...

Forever now’

A beeping noise rings in my ears and something pops up on a holographic screen in front of me. It was slightly out of sight, so I couldn’t see what it said. Xyra, what is that?

‘I pinpointed a planet with fully sentient life forms.’

Great! How far away is it?

‘Three million light years.’

That’ll take forever! 

‘Actually it won’t.’

What do you mean?

‘I can wormhole there.’

What? You can make wormholes?

‘I didn’t mention that to you before?’

No! This is so cool!

‘Although I don’t think I’ll be able to wormhole to the planets star system.We will end up just outside of it most likely.’

Okay, okay, let’s get there already. 

‘Alright, you impatient vagabond, I’ll do it.’

Vagabond…. I guess I am now, aren’t I… A silverglowy circle pops up in front of us, disturbing the pattern of black and stars that made up the universe. Xyra started up some sort of engine? We speed up, flying through the wormhole, inside of it was so bright that I had to close my eyes. I missed seeing what the wormhole looked like, but soon we were on the other side of it. 

We showed up inside of a star system with three stars. Guess you were wrong about not getting into the star system. 

‘Yeah, it seems so.’

Which planet is it? 

‘The second one.’

Oh that green one over there?

‘Yes.’ She brings us close to the planet at a neck breaking speed. Before I could even blink we were there, the gravity just slightly less than on earth. ‘Just beware that we may be the first “aliens” that this planet has ever witnessed.’

Oh crap.


	8. A New Mission

Xyra pov

I slowly descended from the planet’s atmosphere trying to seem harmless. I wonder how we can communicate with them. I think I forgot how to speak the main language of space. Or maybe they have their own language if they haven’t had any contact with any aliens. “Isla, what do you think we should do?” There was no reply. “Isla? Hello?” I run some diagnostics on her, finding out that she was now unconscious. How am I going to handle this now? How should I get them to help her? I guess I’ll just see how they react and go from there. I open my mouth, trying to draw the attention of some nearby locals, who didn’t notice me. Guess I went to slowly… One of them, seeming to be a child, turns around and points towards me. No turning back now. One of the taller natives says something to the others and runs towards me, getting taller every second. She finally stops in front of me, debating with herself if she should go inside or not. She brushes her orange braided hair behind her shoulder, walking cautiously inside of my head. She gawks at the advanced machinery and notices the passed out girl in the pilots seat, rushing to her side. She pulls the gray blanket off of her sleeping body, Isla’s hair showing a different hue. Instead of her usual brown, it was a dark teal. What happened to her? This isn’t normal for humans, is it? Is she okay?! The tall figure gives out an audible gasp, picking up the smaller being in her arms and taking her away. Should I follow? No, it will scare them away. Best to just wait and see if Isla contacts me. 

~Timeskip: Two Hours Later~  
Isla pov

My eyes slowly open involuntarily and I look down at my half clad body. Sitting up, I find myself in a new area, it looked like some kind of home. I’m on what seems to be a mattress, across from me was a short wooden table and there were natural coloured cushions surrounding it. Where am I? What am I wearing?! Where are my clothes? Wait how can I sit up? I couldn’t before. A tall person with medium brown skin and orange hair in braids steps inside, lifting up a fabric beaded door. They had red eyes and an orange “C” with three verticle lines under it around her right eye. They looked to be female, six foot three, and had pointy ears. We stared at each other for a few minutes before she spoke.

“Geruva minatus ve?”

“W-what?” She sighs, walking over to me, sitting down on the edge of the mattress I had previously been sleeping on. She places her large hands under my chin, gently tilting my head upwards, as if she could break me with one wrong move. She quickly places her closed lips on mine and stays there for a good minute, her open eyes lighting up. She moved so that there was a large space between our mouths. What was that for?! My first interaction with an alien and it’s a kiss! How am I going to explain this to-wait I’m not going to be seeing anyone. Well that makes life easier. 

“As I said before, who are you?”

“What?! How are you speaking English now?”

“Eenglish? Is that what your language is called?”

“Yeah, answer my question and why did you kiss me?”

“A kiss here is a trading of languages, it allows both parties to speak each other’s language. So you should be able to speak Juron now.”

“But I’m not your species, and what’s that thing around your eye?”

“You are, even though you aren’t tall and your ears are shaped weirdly. You have our hair, and the mark.”

“What? Last time I checked I had nothing around my eye!” She picks up a container of reflective liquid, holding it up in front of my face. I saw myself, but with dark teal coloured hair and the same mark as the person in front of me matching the colour of my hair. “How is this possible? My hair was brown before!”

“Your hair was brown? No one has ever had hair that colour before, it’s unnatural. How did you even get here then? What was that thing you were in?”

“My name is Isla Patterson, I’m from the planet earth. The ship I was in is Xyra, she is my closest friend.”

“A ship? Earth? Another planet?! You’re an alien? But you have Roanoke looks! You have the colour!”

“It’s all true though. What do you mean by the colour?”

“There is a prophecy made by our planets last ruling queen’s daughter. She said that we would only be united again by one with dark teal hair from off our homeland. We always thought that she meant an uninhabited land here, but it could be that she had meant off of our planet. Maybe she didn’t want to start riots by stating there were other planets, it would have made that chaotic time much more severe.”

What does this all mean? Am I to be the savior of this place I don’t even know? Will people here want a stranger to lead them? Is she only lying to me so she can use me in some weird ritual?

“We will have peace once more. I should introduce myself, I’m Erutal Volbass.”

She seemed so sincere and innocent during that whole speech. I think I will trust her and help these people to end their conflict, there’s nothing much for me to lose now. What do you think Xyra? Xyra? Hello? Huh, that’s odd, maybe she’s sleeping or something. That doesn’t seem right but it’ll settle itself somehow. 

“Me? I know nothing of your people, I know nothing of your language, I’m not fit to be a leader.”

“That itself has shown that you will be perfect, you will learn and become one of the best.”

“How can you be so sure, I’ve never led anyone before. Do you know where Xyra is?”

“What is a Xyra?”

“The thing you found me in.”

“Oh that, it’s right whereI found it. We will begin your lessons immediately. 

We? Did she mean us two or? She lifts up the door flap, letting in three others. One seeming to be male with honey skin, magenta hair, orange eyes, and slightly taller than Erutal. The second was slightly shorter than him with pale skin, purple eyes, and pastel green hair. The final girl was a couple inches shorter than the last, had pale skin, pink eyes, and lime green hair. 

Erutal introduced them, “the male is Horan, the two twins are Johur”, she points to the pastel haired one. “And Fertge”, the one with lime green hair waved boredly.

Horan spoke in Juron to me, “ushe feras winavuser tirop devb.”

“I don’t understand, maybe I’m only a bit Roanoke, if at all, and cannot learn languages the same way?”

“That is quite a possibility, would you like them to learn English as well?”

Ugh! No way! “No thank you.”

“Can you learn Juron then?”

“I can sure try.”

“First we’ll give you the rest of your outfit.”

“The clothes I was wearing before you changed me?”

“No, you can have them back, along with a bag I found, but you cannot wear them. I’ll give you the rest of our cultural outfit. You already have the first part on. “Gilop ilned ferveeb dowop.” Johur leaves the room, soon returning with silver chest armor and gray boots that look way too large for me. There’s absolutely no way those will fit me. She hands them to me, I try to put them on, but they just slip right off. “Horan is a seamster he can fix the boots, Johur is a blacksmith and she can fix the armor.” she translates the message and the two leave to do their job with my clothing. “We’ll start on your language learning now.”

“Are you like the leader of a group or something?”

“Unofficially, yes, we are a part of the Serndi tribe. You will only have to learn Juron, all of the tribes by now should speak it. There are some that cannot though, but I’ll cover for you.”

“What are you planning on doing with me?”

“Just some speeches to bring us back together. You will become our leader, so you must also learn the royal traditions. There should be one of royal lineage somewhere who knows the traditions. Anyways onto your lessons.”

~Timeskip: A Week Later~

“Yes Isla, you are finally halfway to learning Juron! Soon we can unite our world!”

I’m pretty sure that being subject to a wild bear-like animal is a pretty good way to make sure you know a language fully. It does give very good motivation. I shudder internally and externally, subconsciously rubbing a scar behind my left ear where the bear got me. “Or this armor breaking my back! How do you guys wear these?”

“They don’t, only the females wear them, we are the warriors, the males are the homemakers and crafters.”

I spoke in Juron. “That is the opposite of my world, women are traditionally homemakers and men everything else. At least that's the way in most cultures on Earth.”

“Good speaking.” Horan praised, “I cannot imagine doing everything except homemaking, that’s barely anything important.” 

Johur adds in an agreement. “How long do Earthlings live? Are you like a child or something? You’re tiny, which is admirable, the smaller you are, the better here. You’ll probably have many wanting to be your mate.”

“W-what! I’m only sixteen! I’m not ready for anything like that yet. The average human lifespan is ninety-two for females and ninety for males. I’m not exactly a child anymore, sort of that awkward in between stage, ya’know? Also it’s the opposite for us, the taller you are, the more attractive you are.”

“In between stage?”

“That’s really weird. The average lifespan here is one-hundred-thirty years for both genders…” We hear footsteps approaching the shack. Kertge pulls me roughly by the arm, putting me under a green wooden bed. I hear and see more footsteps along with a sharp female voice. 

“The four of you have been acting suspiciously. What are you up to?”

“Nothing ma’am”, Erutal’s calm, strong voice replied. I hope they don’t get in trouble because of me. I hope to hear from Xyra soon, I’ve missed her. We’ve always spoke at least once a day before this. I hope she’s okay. I was caught up in my own in my own thoughts, so much that I didn’t hear Huron telling me that it was safe to come out. Johur began growling in impatience and yanked me out of my hiding spot under the bed. The rough wooden floor giving me splinters and scratches.

“Ow, ow! What?”

“We were telling you to come out from there.” Fertge rudely stated. 

“I’m sorry, I was spacing out, ever think that maybe I didn’t hear you?!”

“Oka, okay you two, there’s no need for this.” Erutal pulls us apart.

We both apologize in sync. “Sorry Erutal, but she was-”

“No excuses.” We glare at each other from across the large room. Her head craning downwards to look me in the eyes. Horan and Johur trying to contain exuberant laughter. Erutal looks over at them sternly, them promptly gaining control of themselves. She turns to me and hands me a heavy book, my arms dropping to the floor somehow still grasping onto the item. “I’ve written out an English-Juron spelling book. Study it and know it in a week.”

What?! Only a week! How does she expect me to? “Give me that!” I panic, stealing the book she had just taken from my hands. I sit down on the floor, opening it and carefully practicing my Juron writing skills. Skills that were currently non existent that is. 

~Timeskip: The Next Day~  
Fertge pov

While Isla is practicing her spelling with Horan and Johur, I steal Erutal from her supervision duties, bringing her outside the shack. “What is it Fertge?”

“Do you really believe this alien is going to save our planet? The other tribes have lately been pressuring us with threats of attacks, I think they will do it soon.”

“Look at how quickly she has been learning our language. I have been giving her impossible deadlines, and she’s passed them all! I do not know how fast Earthlings learn, but I sure know that it takes us our whole childhoods of fifteen years. It may be because she has Roanoke heritage, but besides that, why are you unbelieving?”

“I suppose that is true, it most likely is her, the prophecy does point to her. I just don’t want to be used like I have in the past…”

“I know, but that was ten years ago, it’s time to move on.”

“Guys! Come back inside! I think Isla’s ready for the next step!”

“We better go and start the process. This will be interesting.” Erutal hooks my left arm in her right and leads me back inside our home.

Isla’s pov

I hear Erutal and Fertge talk about some sort of process just outside of the shack i hope it doesn’t hurt. 

“To begin your ascent to uniting Tecconoe you must gain respect in both war and trade. This will make you, as you call it, a jack of all trades.”

Huh? This will hurt! “I’ll have to fight?”

“And hunt, and cook, and trade too, among other things!”

“Johur, I don’t think that’s helping.”

“But it’s true Horan, we can’t lie to her!”

“Be quiet!”, everyone shuts up. “As I was saying, we need to begin your training. We will start with our traditional weapon, the bow and arrow.”

“I know how to use those, we have them on Earth too!”

“You do?!”

“Our planets do seem pretty similar when I think about it.”

“Let’s test that skill.” We all go outside and to the back of the building. I pick up a large green bow way too large for me. I stare at it, then the arrows, then at the group deadpanning beside me. 

“You expect me to be able to use this?” Erutal sighs, Fertge face palms, Horan shrugs, and Johur giggles. 

“Erutal speaks first, “I suppose you will start with weapons making then.”

“I’m teaching, correct?” Erutal nods at Fertge and the rest of them head back inside. I look at her and she leads me to another shack without a word. I wonder why she doesn’t like me? She always seems so annoyed around me. Always seems burdened with me. This shack is just a roof on stilts covering a workshop. It had a carpentry bench, smelt, and almost everything you could think of. 

“Is this all yours? I thought that only males did the trades and crafting?”

“It was my brother’s, but he’s gone now.”

“Did he die?”

Yes, one of the other tribes, the Surnt, attacked and he was one of the many who were killed.”

“I’m so sorry, it’s hard losing someone you love.”

“How are you supposed to understand?! You are only a child!”

“When I was ten, six years ago, my mother was killed under a collapsed bridge on a highway. I never got to say goodbye, just how I’m guessing you didn’t either.” She shakes her head, tears spilling from her eyes. She bends down and leans on my smaller figure, forcing my heels to dig my boots into the ground.

“I have no idea how your mother died, but I suppose I shouldn’t judge your life experiences from your age. I apologize for thinking you are anything below me because of it. Can we start over?”

“Of course”, I stick out my left hand. She stares at the gesture before brushing it off and sitting down. She wraps her arms around her legs and stays there for a couple minutes. After comforting herself, she stands up and acts as if what happened was perfectly normal. “What was that?”

“It’s our apologizing custom.”

“Okay? I guess we should start the lesson.”

“Agreed.”

~Timeskip: The Next Day~

“Can I go see Xyra? I need to tell her about all that's happened.”

“We need to focus on the mission at hand.”

“I haven't seen her in almost two weeks! We've never been apart for this long without talking. I'm worried about her, this worry will only cause me distraction from the mission!”

“You have made a good point there, I suppose we may go.”

We? Oh, I guess I don't have a clue where she is… “Thank you, you're bringing me there right?”

“Of course”, she exits the room, me following close behind. The others look at us in surprise at Erutal’s response. She never really had seemed like the type of person who let others have their way. I suppose I'm going to learn more about everyone, like I did with Fertge. I do hope all I learn will be good. I would hate to discover a dirty little secret. She takes out some sort of wig from her satchel, along with a small jar. She hands me the medium blue braids, I put my hair up, underneath the fake hair. She opens the jar, dipping her long fingers into a pigment the same hue as the braids. She rubs it on top of my mark, it stinging a tad.

She notices my wincing. “It does hurt to cover up a mark, it needs to breathe. But we cannot risk anyone seeing that you have the prophecies do colour.”

“I understand, but what would happen if someone saw?”

“I do not know, which is why we must not risk it.”

“What about my height?”

She snaps the lid closed and takes out a gray string of beads, the shade matching that of my eyes. “There are rare cases of people having your height. We will just blame it on that. You should be fine, our mission will not be compromised.”

That sounds more like a demand than an assurance… I took the beads from her and placed them through my braids so one strand fell beside my face. Erutal's took one look at my placement and her nose scrunched up, she fixed it so that the strand fell behind a few braids instead of in front. We walked silently on the golden flora, each step taking us through an orange forest matching Erutal’s hair. We soon exit the odd coloured forest and approach a low hill, when we make it to the top Erutal's pauses.

“Aren't we going to see Xyra?”

“We are here.”

Is she in camouflage mode or something? I walk all over the hill in every direction looking for Xyra, but I don't bump into her cold metallic shell. 

“What are you doing Isla?”

“Trying to find her?” What am I doing? This must look so stupid.

“It's obviously not here, the thing flew away when I left with you. I thought it would return when you came back here. But it seems that I was mistaken.”

“Why didn't you tell me this before?! Something could be terribly wrong with her! What if she's in trouble? How would I help her?”

“I cannot help you, we do not have any flying machines on our planet, unless you count creatures as machines. Nor do we possess the knowledge or means to create one. I cannot explain why it happened, but I can say that everything happens for a reason. You will soon find your fate.”

“Wow, that there was quite a speech. I suppose I will continue training to reunite your people.”

“You were thinking of quitting?”

“Uhhh…. I didn't say anything ...”

“Well thank you anyways, I do hope your machine will return to you. If that would help your productivity and happiness.”

Happiness? I thought she only wanted her planet to be united again. “We should return to the others, don’t want them to think that I ran away or hurt you after finding out about Xyra.”

“Yes, let’s do that.” We walk back to the green shack, Erutal leading the way. She brushed her colourful bead strings behind her, them crashing into my face.

“Ow! Erutal!”

She spins around startled, “my apologies, I forgot you were down there.”

“It’s fine.”


	9. A New Idenity

“It’s about time you returned. The elders have called a meeting tonight, remember we must introduce Isla today?”

“Again, my apologies, everyone prepare for the meeting.”

“What are these meetings for?”

“We have one every second eirgy on the last ruger. We discuss the movements of other tribes, finances, battles strategies, the old prophecies, and we to the revival ceremony. Erutal, pass the pigment please!”

“Okay”, she hands the small jar to Johur, who pops it open and applies more to my flinching face.

“Isla, stop moving and it will hurt less.”

“I know that Horan, but it’s so cold and it hurts!”

He laughs, “our planet is so warm, yet everything in those containers are always frigid. I don’t know how that works.”

“It’s the properties of the material the jars are made of. We make them out of konold, which does not hold heat well. Therefore, the heat from the contained substance escapes, leaving it cold. Quite simple really.”

“Great explanation”, Erutal praised. Fertge groaned in response to the cheesy compliment.

“How am I going to be introduced? What will be my story and name? Stuff like that.”

“Your name will stay the same. You will have just come out from hiding in the underground caves in the forest, your family was killed and you went into hiding when you were young. You do not know the tride that committed the murder and your age is about thirty-two years.”

“Thirty-two! Do I actually look that old?! How old are you guys anyways?”

Johur was quick to answer, “Fertge and I are thirty-five, Erutal is forty, and Horan is thirty-eight. You don’t look a day under thirty-two.”

“Don’t you know that it is rude to reveal a males age without permission?!” Horan “hmphed” and crossed his arms. 

“Well, you guys are doing great for being middle aged.”

“Our average lifespan is about forty percent longer than that of humans. So we actually would be roughly your age, maybe a tad older if we lived the same length as you humans.”

“Enough with the lesson Fertge, you’re so boring and it is time for the meeting. We are going to be late, remember what happened last time?”

“What happened last time?”

“Not now Isla!”

Well whatever Johur, it’s not like I care or anything. She takes my arm and pulls me along with her behind the rest of the group. It takes about what I would estimate to be half an hour of walking to get to the place where the meeting was. Somehow we weren’t late, as Johur believed we would be. There was a large fire pit in the center of a circular shaped clearing of trees. Those who seemed to be leaders or elders of some kind stood on one side, while the other tribespeople sat on the other side. The fire pit in between the two groups was empty while everyone except us five held green firewood. 

“I knew we were forgetting something! I told you Johur, but no, I’m never right, am I?!”

“Horan, calm down, Erutal already has them.” Johur pointed at the sticks Erutal held in her arms. Huh, how come I didn’t notice that before?

We sit down in the front, close to the vacant fire pit. Erutal hands each of the five of us a couple twigs and the elders begin to chant. “Zermb zermb zermb, yzchivy.” They repeat this phrase, getting louder and louder until the twenty-fifth time. Then they stopped and turned around, their backs facing us. They whispered among themselves and turned around, their eyes closed. A shorter tanned woman opened her eyes, revealing a flaming gold which contrasted with her firetruck red hair, it was in cornrows, ending at the nape of her neck. 

“Our first discussion will be our battle strategy for tomorrow. Our scouts say that the Derf tribe is planning an attack tomorrow afternoon. Cerhn will be leading sections one and two, Goppera three and four, Morphat, five and six, I will take seven and eight. You will sort into your groups and train, preparing for the battle tomorrow. Meanwhile, we have been doing great in our economics lately, everyone now has enough food, adequate shelter, and materials to last the upcoming cold season. Now, before we move on to the revival ceremony, Erutal has told me that there is a new member we must accept. Erutal?”

“Yes”, she stands, reaching her hand out to me. I take her hand, standing up and following her in front of the elders, the crowd whispering and gasping at my height. We both face them, their faces shining in the reflected suns. 

“Who are you?”

“I am Isla Patterson, I am thirty-two, and from the underground caves in the forest. My family was killed by an unknown tribe when I was young. After that I lived by myself there until Erutal came across me, she invited me to stay and I accepted. If that is alright by you and your tribe members that is.”

“I’m sure it will be.” Erutal and I both turn slowly around, facing the sea of faces with many different emotions. Confused, excited, happy, pity, and blank to name the majority. The leader repeats my former words. “This is Isla Patterson, thirty-two years old, from the underground caves. Her family was murdered when she was young, forcing her to hide in fear. Erutal has invited her to join our community, should we take her in?” 

There was an enormous sound of “yeses”, “yeahs”, and “of courses”. No one seemed to be opposed. 

But there had to be one distinct “no” piercing through the crowd. Opposing the idea of me joining the crowd. It came from right behind me, everyone moving their heads to see who it was. Erutal turned around, her eyes wide with surprise and fearing her plans possible demise right in front of her. I also slowly moved so that they were in full view, it was a male elder who had night skin, dark blue cornrows and mark, and yellow eyes. He wore a short light brown skirt, leather thigh bags on each side, and a string of yellow beads wrapped around him. “You cannot trust someone you just met, she could be lying. Look at her height, she could even be from the heavens!”

There was a unanimous gasp from behind, in front, and beside me. I looked up and to my left side, seeing sweat penetrating Erutal’s forehead. Is this where my part ends? Will we be tried for rebellion? Erutal said that the elders don’t take kindly to any mention of that prophecy. That everyone believes the only way to peace is destroying the other tribes. But I can’t just let them destroy each other, even if that prophecy turns out to be false. There must still be a way to do away with the fighting, they appear to be tearing themselves apart at the seams. 

“That is enough, we have given you more than enough warnings about these stupid notions. There is no life in the heavens, there is nothing there! We are the only intelligence in our heavens! There is no possibility otherwise, we have always been, we will always be!”

The crowd joins in a new chant. “We have always been, we will always be!” I also join in after hearing it a few times, knowing that keeping my mouth shut would draw unneeded attention to me. I look towards the elders, the male who spoke against me gazing strongly at me. His face did not flinch, it was as if he could see into my mind, my heart, my soul. 

“You are no longer an elder, we have said for far too long that you must stop this thinking. That you must keep these wild beliefs to yourself, we do not want to put these thoughts into the next generation’s heads, do we?” She didn’t leave leave any room for him to answer, but instead cut him off. “You will take your belongings out of the elder longhouse and we will choose a replacement in three forshes.” The man growled like an abused animal, the sound giving me a minor headache. He took leave of my current spot, relocating to where the rest of the group sat. He held his yellow beads gingerly, hesitating before carefully removing them from his toned chest. He placed them in the head elders open plan, the string dangling precariously from her long fingers. He looked down in shame from his outburst, sitting down and casting his eyes at the ground, them refusing to meet my own.

“We will begin the revival ceremony immediately, get into your positions. Isla, we will just be joking in a cycle, holding hands, and closing our eyes, that's all.” Everyone did as said, Erutal and Horan bending down to reach my level as I reach my hands up to meet theirs in the middle. We began to sway, left, right, left, right, and so forth. The nine elders then walked into the middle of the circle, bending underneath the linked hands and crouching down in a smaller circle, touching the ground with their eyes closed. The lead elder sat cross legged in the middle of the eight others who were kneeling diagonally from one another. The woman in the center opened her eyes, “oh homeland,make this offering, to restore yourself and the life here.” She muttered that same sentence, continually getting quieter and quieter, until her words were unheard and mouth shut. She closed her eyes again, everyone around me following suit, kneeling down, closing their eyes, and touching the ground with their fingerprints. I decided not to close my eyes though, hoping the revival would still work.

What I saw amazed me, around the elders hands were auras, matching the colours of their marks. I scanned the area around me too, seeing that normal tribespeople also had this, except theirs had a more transparent hue than the more powerful elders’. I then decided to also to look at my own hands, and sure enough they were also surrounded by colour, but not my mark’s natural colour as expected, but the colour disguising it. How is this possible? Does the dye affect my DNA along with my outer appearance? I guess this is the conformation I need to know for sure if Ihave history with this planet. I looked again to the lead elder, who was beginning to move, because of this I chose to close my eyes as well. Don't want her to think I had my eyes open, which I did, but that's besides the point. 

She opened her now shining eyes. “Thank you my fellow tribesmen, now we will have a bountiful supply of resources. Now we shall head over to Islas ceremony, beginning with the torch lighting.”

Torch lighting?! I'm not good with fire, im probably going to burn everything down and get kicked out of the tribe. I hope I don't burn anything… or anyone! Without Xyra, there's no wa I can go anywhere. Why did she have to leave me? I miss her so much, she was my best friend, well other than Anna…. I wonder how she's doing. Why did Xyra have to abandon me, no, I need to stop worrying. I don't want this to show in front of them. As the future monarch of these lands, I cannot and will not show these people any weakness. They will only want a strong leader, not one weak like me.

I feel repeated slaps on my right shoulder and look up to see Erutal's grave face trying to draw my attention. “Do you understand what this entails?”

I decide to answer honestly, knowing that I'd I didn't there could be severe consequences. “I apologize, I was not fully paying attention. It has been quite a rush, from being found until now, I find myself spacing out quite often. Could you please repeat your words?”

“I suppose I can give you a pardon, considering your circumstances, honesty, and politeness. Morphat get the ceremonial fire and meet us at the forbidden woods.” A middle age looking woman with dark pink hair takes off, swiftly running towards the village. The elder then gestures for the crowd to stand, them obeying without hesitance. “Those of you who want to see the ceremony may also meet us there. I will repeat my former words.” The tribesmen all leave the flaming fireplace, some going to the village, but most of them going to the left of it, towards a forest of green trees. The trees were magnificent, taller than the largest redwood or sequoia, the leaves a brilliant sky blue that almost looked like jelly. The ground below them golden yellow, the whole scene looked beautiful, almost distracting me from the explanation. “As I was saying beforehand, you will take a lit torch and climb up the marked tree with it. Once you get to the top, you must light the highest leaf on fire.” Okay, wait on fire?! Is that safe?

“Won't that burn the tree down?”

“Not if we didn't pour the oil on the tree first. The tree isn't flammable, but the oil is. You really did grow up without knowing anything about your environment or having anyone to teach you. Poor thing.”

“Uhh, yeah.”

She must of read the fear my face displayed as I leaned on Horan’s arm. “But that is what must take place for the ceremony to proceed. You will carry the oil with you, pouring it on every branch and on the trunk. You will be fine though, not burning down with it because there is a vine at the top of the tree. You must use it to swing to a nearby tree. If you fall, we will be unable to accept you, but if you succeed and climb back down that other tree, you will become one of us.” 

Maybe I should rethink helping Erutal… No, I have nowhere else to go. If I die there's no family, friends, or Xyra to miss me. Well, at least I think there's no friends, Erutal, Johur, Horan, and Fertge are just using me for their goal of reuniting their planet, right? My death wouldn't be that big of a loss to them personally, just to their plans. Erutal drags me along with her to the tree, marked with a white horizontal line. My thoughts continued to go down a morbid spiral into the depths of contemplation. She halts next to Morphat, who is carrying a lit torch. I almost fall over from the sudden lack of morin, just to jump at the sight of fire in my face. 

“Isla, are you okay? You're acting weird today.”

“No, I'm fine, it's just that today has been going by so quickly that my head is spinning.”

“Oh, Erutal, maybe she should rest before she does the ceremony?”

“I suppose so, Horan, go get her some dew of Gereyborr.”

“Are you sure? There's not much of it left in the village supplies.”

“Yes, it is one of the only things that could help her with a faint head.” She whispered the next part so that only the three of us could hear. “We can't let there be any risks here.”

“If you say so, but that stuff is strong.”

Strong?! Is it alcoholic?! There's no way I'm drinking that, not even if I have to leave this place. That stuff ruined my life! It's the reason for the pain in my life, if it was never around maybe I could've actually been happy.

Panting breaths alert us of Horan’s return and being me out of my head. His lungs seemed to be drowning in exercise, no air able to penetrate into his airways. He doesn't look out of shape, but maybe the location of this “dew” was just far away. 

“The shack with our towns supplies is just right behind those trees.” Fertge debunks my theory. I look to where her finger pointed, seeing a green shack matching the bark of the trees. It was so well camoflauge that I could barely see it myself. 

“Yeah, well I'm not a warrior like you, don't judge me.” He throws a glass jar filled with a light blue liquid to me and I thankfully caught it before it crashed into the ground. I popped out the cork and began to gulp it all down, somehow not choking or thinking about the fact that it may be alcoholic.

“Ugh, whatever.”

“Fertge, be nicer to him.”

“You're only saying that because you want him to be your mate!”

“What! No I don't!” Johur crosses her arms with a pout and blush on her face. Oh no, they're going to argue again, aren't they.

“You sure about that?”

Erutal, obviously thinking the same as me, steps between the quarrellers. “Girls! Enough!” She shoves her arms between them and forcefully pushes them apart. 

The still-to-be-named leader had a red face and I swear I could see steam rising from her ears and nostrils. “Okay! We will begin the ceremony immediately! You will only have this rope to get to the top of the tree. You will also have this basket strapped to your back containing the torch.” She holds up a light orange woven basket barely holding a lit torch in it.

“I-is that going to be safe?”

“Of course! Don't be dumb, fire doesn't affect us.” What?! They're fireproof! If I let this flame hurt me, they'll know I'm not, at least not fully, Roanoke.

“O-oh, right, yeah definitly.” I see an anime-like sweat drop appear on Erutal, Fertge, Johur, and Horan's foreheads at the same time. 

She straps the flaming contraption to my almost bare back and pushes me roughly to the green tree. It had light blue Juron writing on the white line that circled the whole tree, it read “good luck”. I looked up at my challenge, there were no branches until at least twenty feet up. Welp, looks like I'm going to be here for a while. Oh dear universe help me.

I take the long rope in my hands, stretching it out as much as I could. I tied one end of it to my left wrist and wrapped the length of the rope around the base of the tree until I reached it again. “Can somebody please tie this end to my other wrist?”

“I suppose it is not against the rules…” Johur walks up to me and does as I requested, albeit a bit to tightly.

I then turn to face my tree, inhaling the warm scent of its wood. This reminds me of something from when I was little…. What could it be?

The cheering of a newly forming crowd wakes me up once again from my inner world. I begin to make my ascent, pulling my restraints against the plant to keep myself from falling. I continue the process, slipping constantly, but somehow not actually falling. Once I reach the first branch actually capable of holding me, I untie the knots around my wrists one at a time. I looked down at the people spectating me, them looking like tiny specs against a golden backdrop. Wow, the view from here is breathtaking. Could I just stay here forever? I feel bad about burning down a perfectly healthy tree. I trace my sight up to the tapering tree above me, seeing that I was barely halfway done my journey. I guess if I want to bring these people joy, I have to burn this tree. 

I went back to making my way up the tree, taking my arms and swinging them up to secure a branch, pouring oil on all of them. I heaved myself on top of the new limb, doing the same to the branch above it, and repeating it again until I reached the top of the tree. A few times during my climb I felt the heat of the fire brushing against my upper back and neck, but there was no pain. Thank goodness I put my hair in a bun before. But why am I not being burnt, based on the amount of heat, I should be on fire right now. 

I brought myself out of my own thoughts and pulled out the flaming object from its sheath. I located the highest leaf on the tree and oiled it, looking to my right side I note the location of a yellow vine. I’m guessing that's my saving vine. I very carefully touch the torch to the leaf, the entire thing blowing up and forcing me backwards. I slid down the oily branches and fell off of the tree, I tried to grasp onto blanches, leaves, anything to save my life, but they were to greasy to help. I closed my eyes, preparing myself for this drastic exit from the universe. No, not today, I will do something right for once in my life. No more thinking I can't do anything and being lazy, I will complete this mission. 

I forced my eyes to snap open, time flying in slow motion. I shoved my shaking hands around the nearby vine, jelly leaves dancing around my suddenly stilled sweaty body. I loosened my grip on the vine, letting myself fall down until I hit a branch. I placed my feet securely on the limb, pushing myself backwards and into another tree, where I was somehow able to hold my place. I let the vine slip again from my grasp and climbed down from the tree, my feet quickly reaching solid ground. 

I looked back at the first tree I was at, seeing it burning to the ground. Smoke was stinging my eyes, them watering in response. My body ached from the activity, my sad state must have been worrisome, would I make it out okay? I felt something hit my back hard and I fell forwards into the ground, crashing into my former saving grace.


	10. A Missing Face?

I woke up safe inside the shack, although Johur’s face was hovering over mine closely. “Agh! Why are you doing that?”

“Sorry”, Johur giggled, “we were just checking your vitals to see if you were okay! Which it seems you are!” We? But it's just her? I look down at the end of my bed. Oh.

“Well, yeah, I'm awake, so you can tell Horan to wake up from his nap.” She looks down to the foot of my bed, noticing Horan lying there motionless.

“Horan, get yourself up right this second!” She slaps him on his forehead, making his unconscious body fall off my mattress and onto the dirt floor. So that's how her and Fertge are related. Johur can be scary too! I don't wanna meet their family. I sigh, fearing what angering their whole family would do. 

His eyes instantly go wide open and he shoots up from his spot on the ground, dusting himself off. “Hey! I was sleeping there!”

“That's what you get for sleeping on a female's bed you idiot! You know how that kind of inappropriate stuff is prohibited!”

“Sorry, I was waiting for her to wake up. We’ve had to prepare for the battle later today and I’ve been tired!”

“With our mission Horan, you’ll have to get used to this.” He groans in response and lets his head fall back down onto my mattress. Although I push him off of it again and get out of the blankets, grabbing my wig from the side table. I put it on, putting my natural hair up and take both the reflecting bottle and bottle of face dye. I use the former to put on the later, somehow not going outside of my mark’s boundaries. “Wow, you’re getting pretty good at this now Isla, it used to take you forever just to put your hair up.”

“I know, I know, I was terrible at everything when I first got here. I can’t believe how far I’ve gotten and how much I’ve improved.”

“You did it in an amazing pace too!” 

“Ah, I wasn’t that great Horan, but thanks for the compliment. Anyways, I guess we have to prepare. It’s my time to prove myself, so I better be ready.”

“Let’s go then!”, Johur grabs both of us by our hands and drags us outside with surprising strength. Horan looks at me bewildered and I give the look right back to him. She stops suddenly, sending the two of us into each other, our heads clunking hardly together. He falls backwards on the ground whilst I tumble forwards, catching myself by landing on my knees. Onto some small pebbles. Nice. 

Erutal spots us from her spot near another shack, she walks over camly, eerily so, her forehead was scrunched together and she gave off an ominous vibe. “E-erutal what’s wrong?”, Johur stuttered out. Makes sense, I would probably do that too if I spoke to her right now. 

“There’s nothing incorrect right now.”

“You know what I mean!”

She chuckled dryly, “I know... We need to get ready, we don’t want Isla to die yet.”

Wait, what?!

“We’re in group five, with Morphat. You two”, she points at me and Johur. “Follow me, Horan, you know where to go.”

“Where’s Fertge?”

The two girls looked at me, and then each other, having a silent debate without me. “She’s…..busy right now.”

“Yeah, what Erutal said!”

“Oh, okay?”

“Anyways, we better get going and prepare for the battle!” Johur runs ahead of me and Erutal, speeding into the forest.

“Wrong way, that is why I told you to follow me.”

“Oh”, she turns around and head in the opposite direction. 

“Wrong way again, it is on this path.” Erutal leads us down a beaten down grass path directly in between the two places Johur tried to go. It did not lead us to the forest, but instead to an open grass meadow. The forest was in front of the meadow, shielding us from view. There were about fifty other people there preparing, they were literal giants, like probably taller than Horan. Johur noticed their height as well and turned to me, eyes wide open.

“We’re going to die if we have to train”, she mouths.

“We need all the luck right now”, I mouthed back.

“Stop acting like fools and get your heads in the game. We are here to both improve our skills and develop new ones. If you stop worrying and get to running twenty laps around the perimeter of this field, I would greatly appreciate it.”

I spun around at the new voice, looking up and seeing an extremely tall middle aged woman with medium pink hair and crimson eyes gleaming with mischief. The three of us grimaced, instantly sprinting around the perimeter of the meadow. This field is way too big for us to run twenty laps. This’ll take a few years, at least. 

We did finish our warmup, albeit after a long while, I finished last of course and we moved on to finalizing our battle formation. “Their warriors will most likely come from the east, with another group of them trying to surround us from the west. So, we will come at them from the south, going around their troops and surrounding them. “We will have the archers on these hills towards the back, swordsmen and any other close-range weapon holders will be in front. Iferya, can you get the armoury to come here?”

“Yes ma’am,” a young, but towering girl with light blue hair and orange eyes takes off into the distance. While we waited for her return, we were separated into two groups, me and Johur in one, and Erutal in the other. Soon the quick-paced girl returns, a group of struggling men far behind. They carried a few large wooden chests with them to us and placed them in between our two groups. 

The chest closest to my group was unlocked by a male with a dark tan and light blue hair and eyes matching those of the messenger girl. Inside of it was multiple green wood bows and matching arrows. Thank god, that’s their only weapon I can use at the moment. Johur and I both received one of these each and a quiver of arrows, while Erutal got a large bronze claymore sword. I wish I could learn how to fight with a sword, it looks so cool. I’ll have to ask. She begins to warm herself up by practicing a few slashes. “Now, we will practice our formation, archers, make a large semicircle line at the perimeter of the field. Those with metal weapons fill the space between them.” Morphat pauses, waiting for us to take up our locations. This obviously takes us too long for her liking, and by us I mean me. “You! With the dark blue hair, peed it up would you!”

“Yes ma’am.” I get into position next to some girl with light purple hair, my favorite colour. She looked towards me with distaste in her golden eyes. Am I already hated? What is going to happen when we begin the plan? I don’t want to know. 

“Now, start marching forwards, stay an arms length from those next to you and in front of you. We will be unable to win this unless you stay in your form. We can’t afford to lose this battle, it determines if we can stay in this area, which our enemies say is not ours. We will protect our homeland and prove ourselves as the rightful tribe.” The rightful tribe? What does that mean? I’ll have to remember to ask Erutal later. For now, I’ll focus on what I have to do currently, I can’t die yet. I stepped forwards in sync with the others, my whole concentration set on not messing up. “Halt!” A couple rows in front of me Johur fell down, knocking the person on her right side down along with herself. The other woman quickly got up raging, pushing Johur back down when she tried to stand back up. “You all did okay on the marching, but now we get to see if you can do that and fight at the same time.” 

And this is where I do die. We began to march again as soon as Johur was on her two feet. Those of us who had bows took our arrows out of their quivers and shot them, being careful not to shoot those around us. I angled my first arrow slightly upwards, drew the string back, and let it fly into the air. It went up into the sky and curved downwards, landing a few meters away from the front lines. The close range-fighters swung their weapons, perfectly hitting the invisible enemy. “Okay, you can stop now. I believe we are ready now for the bat-”

A warcry of many voices sounds throughout the meadow, startling everyone. “They can’t fight fairly?! Then we’ll show them that noble people win!” We start moving once again from our former frozen spots. I aim an arrow the same way I had just practiced, hesitating before pulling back the string. I don’t want to kill anyone though. I don’t want to be a murderer, what kind of leader is a murderer? My rebellious thoughts were short lived however, as Johur looked at me not doing anything and glared. How can she be so scary and positive at the same time? I let the string loose, while regretting my every movement, and it lands perfectly in an enemies upper arm. I quickly pull my gaze away from the scene and guiltily repeat the process several times, successfully lowering their numbers. 

Many of our front fighters were put out of commission by the other tribe, our enemies making their way through our ranks. I continued to focus all my energy on taking out our opposition, but I failed to notice an orange haired woman approaching with her sword drawn. She swung it at me and I instantly doubled over, clutching my stomach, where blood was seeping out at a fast pace. She prepared her close range sword for another attack, not failing to alert Erutal to the scene. My guardian angel signaled to another archer who thankfully had good aim. As I prepared for my bloody death, an arrow shot through the air and pierced her head, blood began to spurt out of it and I looked up, seeing my attackers horror-filled face. Oh my gosh, if that had missed by only an inch. I could’ve… I shuddered from both that thought and knowing her image of grief, caused in part by me, would forever be engraved in my mind. 

While I was still in shock from my almost death, Erutal and the other fighters were beginning to overpower the other group. They slashed them, blood and corpses littering the trial they took. It isn’t good for my mental health, as I fear I may develop PTSD from the experience. Hopefully not, I still want to be able to lead these people away from violence, so things like this stops. 

“Charge forwards!” I pick up my feet and run, as if it’s the last time I can enjoy the wind through my hair. As if I could enjoy rushing at enemies and experiencing the infamous kill or be killed scenario. I no longer shoot arrows at the opposition, but chasing them back into the forest where they originated from. I guess their sneak attack didn’t work out the way that they wanted it to. I ran along with my titan teammates, weaving a pattern through the tall trees. One of my turns around a trunk was too sharp and my right foot twisted around my left ankle. I felt fire crawl up both of my ankles, the heat lapping up to my knees. Fire…? I don’t see any flames, or smell any smoke. Then, all of a sudden, my legs collapsed. In a desperate attempt to prevent harm, I dropped my bow. It didn’t actually do any good, as I kneeled down on top of it. I felt my skin tear on top if it, the rough wood being pressed into my skin. I see and feel blood streaming out from my knees onto the bow and the ground. My limbs shook from the stress of battle and I’m unable to move. Now, to wait for someone to find me… I’m so useless, how will I ever complete the plan?


	11. Bedridden

I woke up in the shack, once again with faces hovering over my own. “Why do you guys always do this?”

“Sorry, we thought you wouldn’t wake up.”

“Why?”

“Your heart crevices were punctured.” What? Crevices, I only have one?

I lifted my hand up to my chest and touched it, it was perfectly fine. No scratches, no blood, no wound. “My heart wasn’t touched, the area around it is fine. What exactly are you talking about?”

I get a concerned look from Erutal, and she pulls the rough brown blanket covering me. She jabs a finger to my knees that are wrapped in strips of cloth. It was hard to decipher their original cream hue though, as they were covered in blood. “Yeah… I injured my knee, but what does that have to do with my heart?” I rest my hand over my beating heart, still feeling the dire need to recover. It has only been about half a day since the fight, of course I would still be exhausted. 

“Do you not know your anatomy? There is a small heart behind each of your kneecaps.” Huh?!

“Isn’t there only, muscle, fat, bone, and ligament there?”

“Yes, but there’s also a small heart behind them both.”

“Then humans aren’t structured the same way as you guys Erutal.”

“Your hearts aren’t in your legs?!”

“No Horan, we only have one heart and its near our lungs, enclosed in our ribs.”

The three of them sat on the dirt floor in stunned silence. “Y-You don’t have Derederr?” ‘Deredere’, what’s that? 

“Johur, that’s just a myth, and if it’s real it’s something the gods took away from us when we displeased them at the seperation.”

“What do you mean by ‘gods’? In all of your texts I’ve read, there has been no mention of any supernatural. By ‘separation’, do you mean when all the tribes went against each other after that last queen ruled?”

“It’s disrespectful to write about them, they do not wish for us to do it. I thought I mentioned something about them to you, I guess none of us did… After lunch, come with me to the forest and I will teach you about them. We certainly cannot allow them to be unknown by our future leader.”

“Yes, of course.” More studying, yay… “What is happening now?”

“You are resting, the rest of us are going to the meeting where the results from the battle are being summarized.”

“Shouldn’t I also be there? I was part of the fight and well, the future leader possibly.”

“It isn’t a possibility, it is going to happen.” Johur interrupted, once again putting on the scary face from training.

“Also, your rest was an order from Morphat. I-we tried to debate it, but she wasn’t going to take no for an answer.”

Oh, of course, we can’t tell her that I don’t have hearts there. “Guess I’m stuck here then.”

“Thanks for your cooperation, we’ll be on our way then.”

“See ya.” Well, now what? That meeting is probably going to last for over three hours. I sat up from the bed and reached underneath it, my head hanging off the edge. I pulled out my backpack, opening it and taking out my phone. Hopefully there’s still some charge. It somehow turned on, keeping its charge for many weeks. I opened it to an app where I had music downloaded, just for the whole thing to die. “No, I was so close!” I flopped backwards onto the bed and stared at the ceiling. 

Wasn’t there something about some sort of rock that held an electricity in some book Erutal gave to me? What was it called again? Degreeres? No. Desures? No. Degsures! Yes, that was it. Where did I put it again? Hopefully nearby, I can’t exactly stand right now. I searched through the room with my eyes, not seeing the midnight blue cover anywhere. I looked under the bed once more and spotted it, on the other side. At least I can reach it from the other side of the bed. 

I hung over the edge of the other side of the bed, reaching down and barely touching the book cover. I do grab a hold of the thick binding, dragging it into my lap and opening it to where the table of contents would be. Of course, seeing as I’m in a completely different society, it wasn’t there. “Great… I guess there really isn’t anything else to do, I’ll just read though it until I come across what I’m looking for.” 

I do just that, finding a section on electric rocks in the middle of the book, no matter how defying the logic behind that should be. “I need to ask Erutal, Horan, or Fertge where these are found, Johur wouldn’t know., In the meantime, I should just sleep for a bit, if I wake up there’s always the other half of the book to busy myself with.”

~Timeskip: Evening~  
3rd pov

“Hey Isla! How was your day witho-,” Fertge slaps her hand over her sister’s mouth.

“You should’ve checked to make sure you weren’t interrupting something first.”

Isla slowly sat up from where she was sleeping on her right side, “it’s okay, I need to ask you something anyways.”

“Oh? Go ahead,” Erutal lanced at the girl quizzically. 

“Where can you find one of these electric rocks?” She picks up the midnight blue book, pointing to the page where there was a list of the stones in question. 

“Why do you want an electric rock? WHat will you do with it?”

“To charge my phone.”

“What?”

“My phone,” she picks up her backpack, digging through it to show it to her hosts. 

“What is it?,” Horan walked over to her bedside, holding and inspecting it after he was given permission from Isla.

“My phone allows me to communicate with other people, take pictures, listen to music, and download things.”

“Whoa...what does that mean?”

Isla wasn’t able to stifle the laugh that bubbled up her throat at her friends expressions. “I’ll show you when I charge it, well, that is if I can get one of those rocks. It shouldn’t be too difficult though, the book says they’re pretty common.”

“Yes, they aren’t very rare… in other tribes, but you can’t find them here at all. We’re actually the only tribe that has no access to the power these stones hold,” Horan scratches the back of his neck.

“Oh, I’ll just get one when we reunite the tribes then.”

“That’s a great idea. In the meantime, I want to let you know that Johur and I are going to get the priestess tomorrow.”

“You mean the healer, Erutal?”

“Yes, all healers are also priestesses, that’s why there is only one or two left on this planet. The rest were all killed for their relation to the royal family.”

“Wow… that’s sad, killed just for who their relatives are.”

“Anyways, are you hungry? Horan can make some food.”

“I can do what?! I never agreed to this!”

“Unless you want Fertge to cook?”

“No, I’ll do it!”

“Can I ask for the story?”

“No, you don’t want to know what happened last time my sister cooked.”

“I’ll take your word on it…”


	12. Journey to Filla

“Erutal, Johur!,” the two voyagers turn back to face Horan standing next to Isla on top of Fertge’s back. The two with free hands waved at them. 

“Stay safe or I’ll murder you myself.”

“Fertge! Don’t say that,” Isla slapped the girl's forehead. 

Johur giggled at this, “it’s okay, she’s always like that.”

“Doesn’t make it right.”

“We have a long journey ahead of us, so we will be going now.”

“Bye!”

~ Timeskip: Three Hours ~

“Eruuutaaal, how much longer?”

“We’ve been over this before, to get to the Filla region, we have to go around the Laut tribe’s village. This adds five hours to our day long journey.”

“A whole day?,” the girl whines.

“Yes, I apologize for it’s length.”

“But why can’t we just go through the tribe?”

“Because they’re very hostile and will attack us.”

“Oh, I guess that’s a good point…” She skips ahead, the pack on her back bouncing to match her pace. “Can we take a break? My legs hurt.”

“I thought you were trained to be a warrior, not a slacker.”

“But we’ve been walking for over three hours!”

“I suppose we can stop for a short period of time. We need to hunt for a meal anyways.”

“You mean I can’t rest during our break? Why didn’t you just pack a meal before we left?!”

“I asked Horan, but he forgot to do it. Now we have to deal with the consequence.” 

Johur sat down on the golden flora of the forest floor. “You can because you forgot to make sure Horan did his job, I’m going to rest.”

“You’re being awfully immature, but I’ll allow you to sit this one out while I retrieve our lunch.”

Erutal pov

“If I were a small animal, where would I hide? Inside of that hollow tree trunk seems reasonable.” I pull out a small dagger from my brown pack and slowly stalk towards the rotting plant. I step over a pile of fallen leaves, peering into the dark hole of the fallen trunk. A tiny purple creature with long fluffy ears and a wide face tilted its head cutely at me. “No, now is not the time to be dissuaded by the appearance of your meal. But it’s so -augh!” The creature suddenly became aggressive towards me and leaped at me. Its claws digging into my cheeks and drawing blood. I try to pry it off with no avail, it was stuck on like glarse sap. I then took the dagger and killed the horrid beast. “Such a shame, it was adorable. Oh well, now we can eat.” I walk back to where I left Johur. “I just need to build a fire and roast it.” 

When I returned though, I smelled smoke and saw a makeshift fire pit built out of stones. “I thought she was mad at me and didn’t want to help?” 

“I felt bad that I was doing nothing, okay? You know me, I can’t hold a grudge for anything.”

“I’m glad, it definitely makes this trip quicker and easier.” I began to skin the animal and stab a roasting stick into it. Johur looked at it and grimaced.

“It’s so cute, why did you have to kill it. Couldn’t you have killed an ugly animal?” 

Not wanting to expose my weakness for cute things, I said, “just ignore it’s looks and appreciate the sustenance.” We soon were finished with our food, once again starting on our journey.

~ Timeskip: That Evening ~  
Erutal pov

“I believe this will be a suitable location to retire for the night.”

“Why do you always talk so formally? It’s only me here, no superiors or anything.”

“It’s just my habit I suppose, would you like for me to stop.”

Johur pauses for a moment imagining Erutal speaking ‘normally’. “You know what, I just realized how weird that would be to hear. Please don’t change.”

“Oh, well goodnight Johur.”

“You too Erutal.”

~ Timeskip: The Next Morning ~

Erutal woke up just before the crack of dawn, leaving the camp to hunt for breakfast. While she was away, Johur also woke, finding Erutal missing. “Did she leave without me? No, she’s a better leader than that. She’s probably just getting breakfast. Yeah, she wouldn’t leave without me. Why would she bring me with her just to leave me behind. Actually, why did she bring me with her in the first place? I’ll have to ask.” 

The mint haired girl began to collect some medium sized silver stones to build a fire pit. She formed them into a circle and pilled dry grass and leaves in the center. On top of the kindling, she placed dried wood, leaving space to light the fire. She took two other stones and began knocking them against each other, soon getting a spark. A fire then rose up and Johur went back to waiting for her companion to return, which she soon did. 

In her hands were two creatures similar to the one she had caught the day before. They ate in a peaceful silence, well at least for Erutal it was. Johur found it unbearable, there were so many questions running through her head. “Why did you bring me with you? Aren’t I just slowing you down?”

“It is customary for two people to go when making a formal request. You know this.”

“Yeah, but why me?”

“Your sister isn’t the friendly type and would leave a bitter impression on our hosts. If Horan came, who would make Isla, Fertge, and you food? You all would end up starving.”

“Oh… okay.”

~ Timeskip: Seven Hours ~

“Is this the Filla region? I don’t see any sign of a tribe.”

“That is because they live inside of the mountains. They carve out beautiful shelters, something you couldn’t even imagine, I can’t wait for you to see them. That is why this is the place the rulers have always lived and why we must make good appearances. Just let me do the talking, okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll be quiet.”

“Thank you for understanding.” The two approached a small entrance into the side of an imposing mountain. Two tall female guards were standing in front of it, one with dull orange hair and the other with a deep purple. They stuck out their silver spears at the visitors. 

“What business do you have here?”

“We are here to request something from the priestess Avice.”

“You wish to speak to the last remaining priestess? Why should I not believe you will kidnap or kill her?”

“What would we have to gain from that?”

“Gaining her wisdom for yourself.”

“That wouldn’t happen if we killed her.”

“Johur, that’s not helping,” Erutal mumbles under her breath. “I assure you, no harm will fall upon Avice. Please, if you must, inform her that Erutal the portokali is here to ask a favour of her.”

“I suppose I can do that much, since you are so insistent. Seru, stay here and keep a close eye on them. Don’t let them out of your sight,” the purple haired guard growled.

“Yes ma’am.”

“Miss Avice, someone named Erutal the portokali and an accompanice are asking for a favour from you. I’ve never heard of them, but they are very insistent and Erutal seems like she knows you. What do you wish for me to do?”

“Bring them to me please.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I am truly curious as to what she will request of me. What are you waiting for? go.” 

“Y-yes, I’m going.”

“We promised only to make contact in the most dire of circumstances. This is going to turn out interesting, I did not think that dream was a vision, but now I believe that it may come true…”


	13. Origins

~ 8 years ~

“Avice, Avice! Let’s go play outside. It’s so dark in here and we can see the sunrise soon! It’s gonna be so pretty!” 

“Yeah I’d love to. Just let me ask my mother first.”

“Okay.”

“She said I have to stay and study, I can’t go.”

“Let’s go anyways, they’ll never know.”

“You sure?”

“A thousand percent!”

“Ah, okay.”

~ 13 Years ~

“Avice! Ready to go see the sunrise!?”

“Of course! It’s tradition by now!”

“I told you they’d never catch us.”

“Race you!”

“Whoa! Avice wait! There’s some water on those rocks!” The girl ignored her friend's calls, pulling herself up the rocks, slipping and falling forwards. She wrapped her hand around a root sticking up from the ground and prayed to the ancestors to spare her life. She made a mistake and looked down, seeing a deep valley and a river, sending her heart into her throat.

“Erutal! Help!,” she screamed, her vocal chords ripping and becoming raw. 

“I don’t - I - what do I do?!,” she searched for something, anything that could help her, finding nothing. 

“Grab my hand! Please! I don’t wanna die! Eru-augh!” The flimsy root she held snapped in half leaving Erutal frozen, wide-eyed, and frightened. She shook herself out of her petrified state, rushing to the edge where her best friend once was, almost slipping down herself. She spotted the small figure of her friend laying on the side of the valley, blood pooling around her ethereal figure and staining the golden flora. 

She ran, her surroundings blurring as if it was her own life on the line. Soon finding herself at the priestesses door, pounding on the stone, her fists raw, cold, and bleeding. 

“What happened Erutal?”

She led a group of villagers down the golden slopes, the sight of her friends body bringing tears to her already bloodshot eyes. Miraculously, the girl was still breathing, although her left heart was punctured. 

“You are no longer a member of our tribe. The last remaining descendant of the priestess almost died because of your foolishness.”

“But Auntie-”

“No Avice, I’m only giving you a few moments alone with her and then she’s going. That’s final.”

“Yes Auntie. . .” She ran to Erutal as soon as her aunt left the room. “I’m going to miss you so much!”

“Me t-too. I’m sorry, this is all my fault. I should have never convinced you to sneak out five years ago. Now we’re separated, it’s because of me! I’m horrible!”

“No, no, it’s okay. It wasn't only you, I was part of this too. We both take equal responsibility.”

“O-okay.” 

“Now, we can’t communicate unless something horrible or important is happening.”

“But how can we do that even then, there have to be other people with our names. How will we know if it’s actually us?”

“We can use our hair colours in the old language. You are Erutal the portokali and I’m Avice the mov.”

“It’s time for Erutal to leave now.”

“Okay. . .”

“Priestess? Pardon me, but are you okay?”

“Hm? Oh yes, my apologies.”

“So do you believe you can heal Isla? Both of her hearts are heavily injured.”

“I’ll examine her condition first and then report to you.”

“No, you’re my higher up, you don’t have to report anything to me. I’d hate to lose a fighter with such great potential. You should’ve seen her fist fight.”

“Okay,” Morphat salutes to her and leaves Avice to follow Erutal to the shack. “Take me to this new leader of yours, I’m sure I have much to teach her.” They enter the hut, the three others inside bowing to the ground. “Rise,” gray orbs meet purple, the priestess falling backwards and into a deep slumber.

Beep

Beep

Beep

Drip

Drip

Drip

“Mr. Patterson, if I see your wife in my hospital room anytime in the next month, I will personally call the police.”

“C’mon Frank, we both know that you wouldn’t do that to a friend who has helped you out so much. You are in my debt.” The doctor sighed, knowing an argument would prove futile.

“Out! I need to treat Rebecca’s injuries.”

“Okay, okay, geez,” he exits the emergency room, into the hallway, his nose scrunching at the scent of hand sanitizer. 

“Papi? Is Mama gonna be okay?”

“Yep, we’ll be out of here before lunch.”

“Mm, okay. What happened to her?”

“She just,” he hesitated. “Fell down the stairs.”

“Did she have too much to drink?”

“Yeah, yeah. . .”

“Oh. . . Can we eat? I’m hungry.”

“Sure.”

“Alejandro! Don’t involve our daughter in this! She has no part. Don’t take whatever you’re feeling out on her. Just hit me like you always do! I don’t care!”

“Maybe I’m getting tired of you and your attitude!”

“I’m not your child! Don’t treat me like I am!”

“Papi?”

“Isla, no!”

“Outta my way bitch!,” he pushed his wife into the wall, her head whipping backwards against it.

“She’s your child!”

“She’s seven now! Should know better by now!” He grabbed Isla roughly, picking her up by the hair. She flailed, never seeing her father act this way before. She had heard her parent’s screaming sessions often, but was always too scared to leave her room. This time though, she didn’t have a chance to escape. She screamed as some of her hair was ripped from her scalp. Her hands found their way onto her father’s, clawing at them in a desperate attempt to get him to release her. 

“You want me to let go?” She whimpered, nodding her head without a word. “You asked for it.” He relinquished his hold, allowing his daughter to fall down onto the hardwood floor. 

“Alejandro! You’re drunk, don’t touch my daughter until you get it out of your system!”

“Let’s go for a drive.”

“Why?”

“Why not?”

“Do I even have a choice?”

“No.”

“Papi, where are we going?”

“It’s a surprise princess.”

“Alejandro what are you doing?! You’re drunk aren’t you!”

“No.” The world moved in slow motion, the vehicle suddenly stopping as two cars crashed together. The world turned fuzzy and then black as Isla gave into the overwhelming sleepiness overtaking her. Police soon came to the scene, rushing the four involved to the hospital. Only two woke up the next morning.

“Papi, where’s Mama? What’s this box you’re giving me? Why are we wearing only black? What’s happening? I don’t understand!” Frustrated tears well up in the corners of her eyes. She furiously wipes at them, but they continue streaming down. 

“Your mother, she isn’t coming back home. She did tell me to give this to you, open it. I have no clue what’s inside of it. We’re wearing black because we’re going to a sad place.”

“Why is it sad?”

“Because we’re saying goodbye to your mother.”

“Alejandro Patterson.”

“Frank.”

“Stop acting so overconfident. It was your fault wasn’t it? You planned to kill your wife, didn’t you?”

“I didn’t, there was a drunk driver. Didn’t you watch the news?”

“Of course I did Patterson, I read that the drunk driver was one of your drinking buddies. The cops are missing something, knowing you, you probably have someone in the police force helping you. Am I right? Your dark deeds will soon be brought to life. You’ll soon slip up, leaving a trail for the honest people to follow.”

“Stop it man, we’re friends, yeah?”

“No, I’ve paid back my debt. I don’t want to ever see or speak to you again. You hear me? I’m no longer going to be associated with you!”

“Okay, I don’t need you anyways.”

“Papi look! It’s a pretty choker necklace! Look at the purple jewel hanging from it!”

“Yeah, it’s very beautiful.”

“Did she ever wear it?”

“Yes, all of the time before we got married. She said that it was very special. It was passed down from her great-great-great-great-grandmother. It’s sort of funny, your mother said that she had turquoise coloured hair, isn’t that weird?”

“Yeah! Did they even have hair dye back then?”

“No. . .”

“Queen Devonna, Priestess Amara says that there’s been rising tensions between the tribes. That there’s plans to try and overthrow your place on the throne. She’s recommending that you and your family contact the sky tribe and use one of their ships to leave.”

“And go where? They won’t let us live on any of their planets. You know I can’t just leave my people behind!”

“But you have to! If you die, so does the royal lineage!”

“What good is a royal lineage if it’s on another planet?!”

“Let your youngest daughter stay then, no one knows about her yet. She isn’t the heir, her hair is sky blue. She could one day possibly produce one with teal hair. The priestess said she’ll raise her as her own.”

“I’ve never even heard of that happening before. A non-heir producing an heir? Are you sure?”

“We’ll never know if we don’t try.”

“But-,” she was interrupted by shouts from outside the castle.

“Go, we’ll take care of your daughter.”

“O-okay.”

“Eidera, we’ve been on the run for almost seven thousand years. Ever since the days of ancestor Devonna. We’ve been on over a hundred planets, staying on them only until the Galra catch up to us. We need to find a planet far away from their grasp.”

“How will we manage that?”

“Let’s go undercover.”

“What?”

Wow, this chapter skips around a whole bunch. Probably left more questions than answers, unintentionally of course. Thank you for 3,000+ reads, 600+ readers, and 50+ hearts on quotev! I want to do a special extra chapter focusing on one of my ocs back on Earth! However, I don't know who to do it on, so please take this poll ( 50 Heart Special! ) to help me choose! Thank you for reading!

~Melody


	14. New Mentor

“Are you alright priestess?”

“Yes I am,” she accepts the water given to her. “Thank you, I only had a vision, that’s all.”

“Ooh, about what?” Fertge nudged her sister, effectively shutting her up.

“It’s quite alright, it was just about Isla’s ancestry. Now I know for sure that she is the next heir.”

“So how must we go about getting her onto the throne?”

“It’s easy enough, we just gotta show everyone her natural hair, right?”

“It’s not that simple Horan. Even with my words, I don’t know if we can convince everyone to accept her. They may be upset at your previous lies.” This caused a collective sigh to emerge from the group. Isla’s fingers twitch nervously, the overgrown nails pricking into her skin and drawing blood. “Then what should we do? What should I do?”

“I can teach you about what you’ll need to know to become an effective ruler. Although we’ll need a cover. You could possibly come back to my tribe with me and we will tell everyone that you’re training to become a healer. There are some ancient manuscripts somewhere inside of my castle that have lessons for heirs to the throne.”

Fertge’s eyebrows raise, “will that even work?”

“Have a little hope,” Johur frowned.

“Whatever.”

“Well the Priestess and Erutal should stay and talk politics while the rest of us finish the chores.”

“Shouldn’t I stay as well? I think anything political is relevant to me.”

“Pretty son, that’s all you’ll ever hear. Enjoy life while you’re still able to live it.”

“Uh, I gu-,” fingers wrap around her wrist and she is yanked out of the shack. “What was that for Johur?!,” she is released and drops onto the ground.  
“Didn’t you see how they were looking at each other?! They must have known each other before! In Filla, Erutal told the guard to use her name when asking the priestess to speak with her. They were both awkward when we were coming back too! I think we oughta let them talk about it. They probably won’t if we’re there too.”

The rest of the group stares at her, shocked. “You’re more observant than we give you credit for…,” Isla mumbled. Johur wrapped her arms around the smaller girl's frame, causing her to jump back and bump into her friend. 

“Don’t. Do. That. Again.” The culprit released her and just stared at her, giggling. “Do we even have chores to do?”

“Nope!”

A figure approaches from behind the group. “Perfect, then I can train both you and Isla!”

“Ack- Morphat? When did you get here?”

“What are we going to do when you’re gone?”

“Just go cook something Horan.”

“You’re supposed to be on my side Fertge! We need more gender equality in this tribe,” the boy complained and walked off with Fertge in tow. 

“Now let’s get to the shooting range ladies.” The girls sigh, following their commander, knowing their objections would fall on deaf ears. Morphat isn’t one to argue with when her mind is set on training.

~ Timeskip ~

“Isla will be coming with me back to my tribe where I am going to train her as a healer.” Morphat, Isla, and Johur were drenched in sweat, having just returned from an intense training session. 

“Our healer is getting pretty old, it would be nice to have a younger one. When will you two be leaving?”

Isla gestured for Johur to bend down to her level. “Wait, isn’t the tribe leader supposed to authorize stuff like this, not a commander?,” she whispered. 

“Well yeah, but she’s not here right now.”

“What? Why?”

“We will be making our departure right after Isla packs up her stuff.”

“Today? She just went through a pretty hard training session. Maybe you should let her sleep first.”

“Johur, don’t speak to your higher ups disrespectfully. Isla, when you get back, we will be working on your endurance.” The girl groaned, and sat down on the golden flora, her eyes drooping. Avice looked down at her, her heart pierced with empathy for the exhausted teenager. 

She sighed, “I suppose our journey could be slightly postponed, if you really need it.”

“Yes please,” she caught onto a stare thrown her way, “thank you.”

“Islaaaa, I’m going to miss you!” Johur picked the poor girl up and started spinning her around. “In these past few months, you’ve been able to get close to even Fertge and that’s very difficult!”

“No one asked for you to tell any life stories.” The girl crossed her arms and turned to the side, trying to hide embarrassment.

Horan held up his hands, trying to diffuse the tension surrounding the room. “Geez, calm down Fertge.”

“Tch.” 

Isla stood up and began to exit the shack, her friends following closely behind her. “I know we all will miss her presence very much, but when she returns, she’ll be our monarch. Then everything will be right in our world again.” Isla shook, finding Erutal’s words to be worrying. She never had much responsibility over things in the past and she didn’t want to let her new friends down. Her shoulders sagged a bit, almost as if she was carrying a burden on her back. 

“Wouldn’t she only be a princess though, at least until she got married or turned forty?”

“I suppose that is true, but she will have so many suitors, that the title won’t stay for very long.” 

Isla shivered once more, “agh, guys, I’m way too young to even be thinking about that. Besides, any suitors would probably just be gold diggers.”

“What?,” the five around her stand quiet and confused at the new term. 

“Oh right, you guys don’t know what that is. It’s just someone who dates-er-courts someone only for their money. Or in this case, status most likely.” They continue to stare at her until the priestess breaks them out of their collective daze. 

“Anyways,” she deadpans, “we should leave now. I have some appointments that I cannot be late for.”

Johur jumps up, in turn making Isla jump up out of surprise. “Awwww! One last hug.” Isla shook her head. “Please!”

“But you’ve been hugging me practically all morning. It’s even how I woke up!”

“C’mon, I won’t see you for who knows how long!”

“Ugh, fine.” The girl hesitantly spreads her arms out, bracing herself for the attack. She was quickly wrapped up in a death squeeze that soon turned into a group hug. “Not you too Horan!”

The other, more reserved members of the group only gazed at the sight, not amused, nor bothered enough to stop it. “Okay, look at how light it is already, it’s getting late and we need to leave. I have an appointment tomorrow afternoon, remember?”

“Why did you make it so soon? A bit risky, isn’t it?”

“Well I was brought here by you unanticipated. I have a life.”

“Oh… right,” Johur flushed.

“Bye guys!,” Isla threw her hand in the air, waving.

“Good luck Isla!”

~Timeskip~

The two females had been walking for hours in a soon-to-be-normal silence. It was time that Isla greatly cherished, away from the loudness and lack of space she had with the others. She took this time to reflect on the radical changes her life had undergone in the past half-year. 

She did this while admiring the forest surrounding her, analyzing every movement around her unconsciously. Every falling leaf, every rustling bush. Who knows what could be out there that only her instincts could save her from?

“One moment I’m at home accepting my dream acceptance letter, next thing I know, I’m in space. Literally millions of light years away from Earth. I wonder if anyone remembers me, could there even be someone that misses me?”

A leaf flitted through the air and landed in her hair, prompting her hand to reach up and pluck it out. She let it fall to the ground before picking up speed again, stepping over it to catch up to Avice. 

“There’s no way, I’m not that important to anyone. I’ve always been the forgotten one.” 

Their journey continued on silently, late into the evening. “Avice?,” the priestess turned around, a bit shocked upon hearing the girl speak. “When are we going to stop for the night? It’s already pitch black out.”

“We’re not,” she didn’t halt her movements for more than a second before turning back around and continuing her walk.

“What do you mean?,” Isla questioned, worried.

“Exactly what I said, I cannot afford to miss the meeting I have tomorrow. It is with the chief of a tribe on the other side of the globe. He is very prone to anger if things do not go as planned. His whole tribe will pack up and leave if he calls them, and war is the last thing we need right now.”

“Wait, he?”

“Yes, they do things differently in that part of the world. Frankly, I think that those who can’t defend their people should not be in power. It is probably nice to not have the risk of their leader dying in battle though.”

“By me claiming the throne, we can stop those wars, right?”

“Oh dear, just what innocent ideologies has Erutal been planting in your head?”


	15. The Mysterious Face

"Paladins! There's an intruder in the castle! On the left side of the second floor." The alarm rang out through the intercoms. "We have not been able to identify them yet, so be wary. They seem to have a weapon of some sort, please be careful." 

The group of five suited up and made their way to the second level, Shiro leading the way. They prepared their weapons and kept a look out for anyone unknown. "Do you think they're galra?" 

"Who else would try to sneak into the castle, idiot?!" 

"Keith, Lance, you two need to stop fighting. We don't need to give them an opening to attack us." 

"We weren't even-" As they turned the corner, Shiro found himself staring into the pitch blackness of a helmet. Looking suspiciously alike to the ones he and his teammates wore. He paid no attention to it, instead opting to go in with a direct attack to their arm. The figure anticipated his move, ducking down and hitting his gut with the end of a metal pole. He fell to the ground, winded. 

The intruder took that moment to turn and run away, Keith following soon after. Hunk and Lance aimed their bayards and released shots of energy to subdue the unwanted guest. The first shot hit the wall, made a large impact and parts of the wall crumbled. This caused the figure to turn around and start running backwards in order to see the bullets and doge them. "You! Stop running away! You won't be hurt if you turn yourself in!” 

The fabric of the white suit tore around their right shoulder, revealing tanned flesh which was quickly covered in crimson. This caused them to make one small misstep, ultimately leading to their downfall, as Pidge saw this as an opportunity to use her weapon. Their ankle was yanked back by a neon green rope. This allowed for the other paladins to catch up to the formerly elusive character and restrain them. The figure’s back crashed into the metal that made up the castle’s flooring, coldness seeping through their neck from the cold blade pressed up against their throat. 

“Hey!,” the strong feminine voice resounded through the corridor. “Allura! I know you must have some sort of microphones or something listening to this. Death wasn’t really a part of the deal!” The other five looked at each other, not knowing if the figure they now believe as female was bluffing or not. 

They were given answers when the click of the princesses’ heels quickly approached them. “Paladins, fall back.” Four of them followed her command, “Keith, that applies to you as well.” He grumbled, but did eventually remove his sword from its place on top of the unknown person’s throat. “I thought you said that you were good at fighting? They’re only at the level of Altean children, you shouldn’t have been defeated.” Allura scolded the girl, who had picked herself off of the floor and removed the white helmet. Black hair tumbled out, the light hitting it just right, giving it a mysterious purple sheen. 

"Whoa," Hunk stepped into the girl's personal bubble. She stepped back, only for him to move closer. "You're eyes, they're almost yellow. That's so cool!" 

"Uhm thank you?" 

Another person jumped in front of her, "what planet are you from? You're not Altean, and we don't have yellow eyes or such pointy teeth on Earth." 

"I'm from the stars." The girl pried Pidge's fingers out of her mouth and briskly walked past the two curious paladins. "I'm going to visit Xyra now. Allura, I expected them to be at a lower fighting level, so I prepared less. Also, the only weapon you gave me was a long pole, if I had my own choice of weapon, I assure you I would've performed better."

"What's your name mysterious hot lady?!" The girl looked back at him in shocked recognition, along with disgust, and a bit of fear.

"I'm called Runa." She turned back around, quickening her pace.

"My name is Lance, don't forget it!"

"Oh god," she whispered under her breath, rounding the corner of the hall.

"I don't trust her, the only thing we know about her is her name. If "Runa" is her name. She only said that is what she's called."

"I agree with Keith, Princess, are you sure we can trust her. Do you know much more about her than we do? Also, what's a "xyra"?"

"I- I don't know. All I know is that she has the silver lion. I'll follow her and find out. You all go back to training." The group, excluding Shiro, growned. "No excuses." 

"Wait, there's a silver lion?!," Lance yelled." 

"Yes, but I cannot answer any questions on it, for neither I nor Coran know anything about it." She ran, best as her heels let her, down the hallway in search of the other girl.

"I don't like this."

"Did she go into the hanger? That's the only place down this hall… she must be there then." Allura walked through the doorway, leaning on it while observing Runa. She watched as the girl walked up to the silver lion, greeting it with a hug. "Ah, she must call the lion "Xyra", she has a soft side. Everything will work out." 

"Runa, are you okay? You look a bit green. Don't worry, food goo tastes better than it looks, chef's promise." Hunk placed a closed fist over his heart, giving a weak, unbelievable smile.

"Yeah, I don't think you're helping anything Hunk." 

"Awe, c'mon man, no need to give me away." 

"You did that yourself already." All eyes were on Keith, glaring. "Okay, okay."

The newest paladin stood up from her seat and walked down a hallway towards the kitchen. "Coran, look, I think your meals are great."

"Thanks Hunk…"

"Ah, what's that good smell?" All eyes turned to Runa, who carried a plate stacked with purple pancakes. "Please share, I haven't had pancakes in weeks. No good ones since before the garrison!"

The girl tripped over her own feet at the mention of the garrison, catching herself before spilling her precious food. She sat down, being bombarded by questions for the second time. "Do you know how to read Altean?"

"No-"

"Have you heard of the garrison?!"

She fidgeted, sucking in her bottom lip until it disappeared. "...Yes, I've heard it mentioned, just whispers though. Why do you want to know? Other than the obvious fact that it is on your planet?"

Pidge went rigid, causing his best friends to peer at him with raised eyebrows. "I- can we talk later, I'm hungry." He started spooning food goo into his mouth messily, causing a bigger scene than the question had. 

"...Of course…?"

"Can you teach me how to cook with the food here?!"

"Sure, I've picked up a pretty good intuition because of all the planets I've been to where I couldn't read their written language. I don't know if that is teachable though."

"So what was your question Pidge?" The two sat in the common room alone, Pidge hoping that no one would barge in on them and find out her secret. 

"I.. I haven't told this to anyone yet and I don't really know why I'm telling you because I don't know if I can trust you, but I need answers." She looked up as Runa stood up from the opposing couch and walked towards her, sitting right next to her.

"Take your time, don't push yourself to do something if you're not ready yet."

"But I have to be ready!" Runa glanced at her through the corners of her eyes. "Sorry for yelling… Okay, so I'm not actually a girl and my brother was lost somewhere out in space. My dad was with him too, so was Shiro actually, so I know they must be alive!"

"I'm sorry…" "Lost in space… wasn't the garrison preparing for a big mission to Kerberos or something? Shiro… who else?"

"Holt! Our last name is Holt, I hope that rings a bell."

"Holt… Sam? Sam Holt, yes. What was his son's name? I'm sure I've run into him before."

"Their names are Sam and Matt! Please, please, please…" She squinted, tears threatening to spill from her eyes. 

Runa shook her head regretfully, "I'm pretty sure I've heard their names, but I know nothing of them." Pidge stood up and ran down the nearest hallway, presumably to go to her room. "Only the first day and you're already tempted to give yourself up. C'mon, you needa do better than that. Can't be a disappointment to everyone who has put so much work and trust into you. It would be a disgrace, the universe needs you."


End file.
